None. Next question.My honest glibness to one side, I am looking forward to the event with the above title that is taking place this evening. It is being held near Westminster with blogging luminaries such as Mick Fealty, Guido Fawkes, Johnathon Isaby and Sunny Hundal taking part. Lib Dem superstar-in-the-making Mark Reckons will also be there.
Despite the army of online talent pleading the case for the blogosphere's place in the world of Politics, I have to admit that I remain unconvinced that it makes much of a difference. Yes there are stand out moments such as Guido's Damien McBride episode and Cheese-gate but for someone to suggest that blogs help to shape public opinion and can affect polls is far-fetched in the least.
No doubt there are effects at the margins; a few hundred of votes here and a few hundred of votes there but with most First Past the Post seats commanding majorities of several thousands and most Government majorities in the tens, blogging is not close to being a decisive factor, despite the errant claims that this is the first election that will be fought on Twitter and on blogs in general.
That said, I stumbled into this hugely enjoyable hobby and still don't really fully 'get' it so I may be underestimating blogs entirely. There is a buzz around blogging at the moment and maybe it is going somewhere that I can't see.
So, to that end, I will host an exercise on SNP Tactical Voting to see what those at the front line of elections think by saying this: Between now and the General Election, whenever it happens to be, I will happily host a Guest Post from a PPC from any party, from any of the 59 constituencies across Scotland on any topic.
I guess, with a short toot of my trumpet, a hat-tip to my humbling success in the recent Scottish Politics vote and considering I've had a fairly hefty 6,400 unique hits this month so far (not far off 1,000 a day), it's not unreasonable to suggest that this blog is one of the few independent Scottish blog sites that a PPC would want to put a post on if they thought blog exposure would make a difference to their campaign.
There have been welcome suggestions already that that is the case. Kevin Lang (Lib Dem PPC for Edinburgh North & Leith) agreed to a guest post a few months back and Osama Saeed (SNP PPC for Glasgow Central) had one up yesterday. Alex Johnstone MSP wrote a guest post for Jim Millar while Iain McGill (Tory PPC for Edinburgh North & Leith) wrote a guest post on Scottish Tory Boy's blog. This is not to mention the numerous PPCs who run blogs themselves.
So the offer is open. Any party's PPC, any constituency, any topic will see the unedited guest post published whenever the editor wishes, if sent on to jeffrey.breslin@gmail.com. Not that I'm suggesting for a second that a majority of that number read this blog but maybe word will get out over the next couple of months.
Does political blogging make a difference in Scotland? Hopefully we'll be a bit closer to knowing the answer in due course but if the guest post tumbleweed is clearly blowing on here over the next few months, I will be concluding once and for all that the answer is no.
6 comments:
Its REALLY worth remebering the background of 'luminaries' such as Paul Staines.
"Staines worked as "foreign policy analyst" for the Committee for a Free Britain, a right-wing Conservative pressure group, alongside David Hart."
See more details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Staines
A highly dodgy character, extreme right winger masquerading as an anti-establishment character
The most popular blogs in terms of readership (UK ones) appear to be the really crazy right wing ones. They have streams and streams of comments.
That just confirms to me that a lot of blogs are actually just about people violently agreeing with each other.
Which is quite good as it keeps a few obviously deranged people off the streets.
I hope your idea works. I would like to read posts from a variety of points of view and then enjoy a civilised discussion afterwards.
But I have to say I don't live in hope!
Errm since my guest post was before this offer, I'll be taking up another one thanks :)
Most blogers seem to be right wing, anti EU, climate change deniers and stupid. And Tory supporters.
It was a pretty awful event to be totally honest. Lots of self-importance on show.
Mick Fealty is a class act and Nick Cohen ran rings around the four bloggers all night so my confidence is bolstered that blogging makes little difference after all.
Bella C, Guido did nothing for me all night you won't be too surprised to hear, horribly condescending to the people who leave comments on his blog though he did try to backpedal later in the night, no doubt realising a little too late that he'd been so harsh.
Biggest cheer of the night was when the impossibly cool but regrettably dry Sunny Hundal mentioned that the top 10 Tory bloggers are all climate change deniers which, Strathturret, you won't be too surprised about.
All in all, not a great advert for the blogging fraternity. And it really was a fraternity given it was 90%+ male with the females I was relatively close to clearly wondering why they had come along.
Osama, absolutely mate, the slate is wiped clean from today.
No rush though, I have to confess my inbox does not runneth over with PPCs impatient to get a post up.
It's an open offer though, one that will be repeated, so we'll see how it pans out. (Needless to say, feel free to pass on...)
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