Election 2007 - Some Reflections
I still have a couple of “thinK” and “roundup” pieces pending on a few subjects. Here are my 3-4 word verdicts, as a teaser to bring you back.
I’ll fill out the summaries below over the weekend.
How would you summarise the Election?
I’m sticking with my headline from 4:30am on Friday morning:
“Labour not quite meltdown, Tory not quite breakthrough”
Side note: yes I know that is anglo-centric - I’ll correct the balance when I finish the article !
What happened to the Independents?
Progress, I think, but …
(Side note. Near here, Bolsover now has 2 councillors representing “Residents Association” - this must be good fro grass roots politics).
Where are Labour and the Tories now?
I’ll comment here in a bit more detail. This is impressionistic.
I think the situation may be analogous to a couple of years before the election won by John Major. At that point the Tories were in a hole. Perhaps Mr Major remarkbly winning the election maintained a self-destructive trajectory in loss of local government influence.
Labour are in a hole now, but perhaps they have not destroyed their own infrastructure in local politics to the same extent as the Tories 12-14 years ago.
The most destructive long term thing for Labour may be to just scrape a win in the next General Election. If they lose next time they may be back after one term. If they win next time they may be out for 2 or 3 terms the time after.
Tags: uk-election-2007, uk-election-2007-england, uk-election-2007-scotland, uk-election-2007-wales, iain dale, scottish election, welsh election, welsh assembly, scottish parliament, local government[tags]uk-election-2007, uk-election-2007-england, uk-election-2007-scotland, uk-election-2007-wales, iain dale, scottish election, welsh election, welsh assembly, scottish parliament, local government[/tags]
Is 18 Doughty Street making a difference?
Yes, however …
Does the blogosphere make a difference beyond the fringes of the campaign?
Yes, potentially, but it still has to be properly proved …
(Side note: Good article from Sunny, giving us about one and a half cheers, and comparing the UK blogosphere - all sections - unfavourably with the US. He has a number of points).
How well did the Wardman Wire site changes work?
I think the integrated RSS feeds worked very well. I’m thinking about making them permanent in a new 3 column layout. The chat room was very useful for the small number who used it. More tomorrow …
Who blogged well?
Come back on Saturday for a more detailed look.
Hidden gems?
Unequivically, Bush Rat the Video from Bloggerheads.
The funniest thing I was involved in.
Dave Walker’s “I am a victim of my own administration” cartoon. Welcome to Scotland.
What was ignored?
My competition. So far, anyway.
Unsung Success
Social Bookmarking. I proposed standard technorati tags on May 2nd, and posted them in Iain Dale’s comments. In the event a good number of articles were published by a number of bloggers.
This shows what self-organisation of small people can do, but - like the other blogosphere usage at this Election - will ultimately be a damp squib or a staw in the wind for next time.
How was it for your blog?
Provisonally, very good. Triple normal traffic - if that is meaningful on a brand new blog. First 1000 user session day. About 3500 page views from Thursday evening to Friday midnight. Likely to hit 10,000 page views this week - I’ll be happy with that 6 weeks in. Pat, pat - good blog.
Who were your visitors.
Analysis on Sunday. With pictures.
Where are the records of the pre-election predictions of the result?
Dunno. Seem to have vanished.
I have been looking for records of all the predictions of the outcome made on Wednesday, for comparison purposes, but a lot seem to have vanished. Can anyone help?
Summary of the Election?
Sunny also has a nice summary:
In short: the Scottish National Party did great, Labour floundered but not as badly as they thought, Conservatives did as well as they could have hoped, the Liberal Democrats too did badly, the BNP got nowhere and we should all be celebrating. Or maybe… who cares about local elections anyway?
How do I recover?
If you are out and about this weekend, go and see the Newborough (Staffs) Well Dressing Festival. A fantastic community event and traditional artwork made from clay and about 30,000 flowers. The first of the season.
Also, this was one of the villages where the animal rights thugs persecuted the owners of a guinea pig farm by exhuming a body. This is one village that I will be proud to support this weekend.
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