The Wardman Wire

Sunny Hundal is preparing (via Our Kingdom ) the ground for a new initiative in the left wing blogosphere.

[Edit 5/11/2007 10 am): Sunny's Superblog is called "Liberal Conspiracy", and has a wide range of contributors including at launch: Aaron Heath, Alan T, Chris Dillow, Daniel Davies, Dave Hill, Dave Osler, Davide Simonetti, David T, Donald Strachan, Garry Smith, Henry Midgley, Jamie K, Jess McCabe, Justin McKeating, Kate Belgrave, Natalie Bennett, Olivia Skinner, Padraig Reidy, Paul Linford, Robert Sharp, Unity and Sunny himself. There are also some mainstream media links].

I wonder if launching on the day that Guido Fawkes became toast is significant.  Go over there for more information.

I’ve been incubating an article entitled “Sunny and his Superblog” for some time since I read this post. Here are a few thoughts as the first part, in reaction to an article Sunny’s published on Comment is Free yesterday.

Immediate Reaction: Watch the Labels

My immediate reaction is that the categories of “left” and “right” will not work - and they will create expectations that will be a cage for any new initiative.

Conversations and coalitions are key aspects of blogging, and as soon as we say “I am left”, “you are right” - it can all become a bit more difficult, as the labels give an unnecessary reason for not supporting campaigns.

In my opinion, and in contrast, Pickled Politics has worked precisely because it hasn’t overtly stuck any labels on itself. PP has defined it’s core area of interest and let anyone into the conversation as an equal, rather than trying to draw a line around it’s constituency. I’d put PP as the best of the new (started August 2005) group blogs, and one of only two (the other being Conservative Home - started Dec 2003) that has engaged with or built a significant constituency.

Potential Tensions and Stumbling Blocks

In his CiF piece, Sunny mentions two campaigns where the left “excelled”:

Online, the left has occasionally excelled, campaigning for Iraqi Employees or even something as global as Burma. Three thousand people attended a rally in London for Burma, organised almost entirely through Facebook, such is the power of online campaigning.

I don’t know the detail on the London rally, but the Campaign for Iraqi employees was (I thought) cross-spectrum. For example, Mr Eugenides (a right-ish blogger!) has posted repeatedly. I am not clear whether Sunny’s “left” includes Lib Dem bloggers, who came out swinging on this one. I have no idea about the political views of Dan Hardie, who has spearheaded the campaign; I don’t think they matter in this case.

I have no problem whatsoever with Sunny being a sort of blogging Bruce Forsyth and coming out with these “didn’t they do well ” comments, but I do have a problem if that should ever make it more difficult than necessary to mount a cross-spectrum campaign, by emphasising a particular group from a previous movement.

If anyone is building a blogging coalition (of left, right, Martians or whatever) I think it is incumbent on them to make sure that their coalition will not make cross-spectrum campaigns more difficult.

Having made that point, let me also say that I think Sunny is good enough not to make that mistake.

The other advantage of not doing labels, of course - for those who don’t like the “right”, is that it makes it far more difficult for Mr Dale to compile his lists.

There are ways around this - such as having a “party political” blog and a “comment/analysis blog”. In my case I have the Wardman Wire blog for a political viewpoint, and Poliblog Perspective mainly for non-political analysis.

Bloggers can even just assume that one is allowed to be opinionated, and expect others to work with you non-politically.

Define an identity by the centre not the edges

“Definition by the centre not the edges” is a principle I first heard from the great theologian and missionary Lesslie Newbigin, in the context of inter-faith dialogue.

If I were building a blog coalition - in any area of politics - I’d take this as foundational.

I wouldn’t be talking about “left” or “right”, I’d be taling about values and principles, and keeping everything slightly fuzzy at the edges. In my view, “progressive” is yet another elephant trap. If such words are used, then they have to be defined very carefully, otherwise you end up with an arguing shop - otherwise known as the “Respect phenomenon“.

The Respect Phenomenon is where the whole initiative doesn’t matter anyway, as you all stab each other in the back arguing about whether the “Red Flag” should be “scarlet” or “venetian red”, and the last man standing is the dodgy codger with the personal brand who is thought to be in it for money anyway.

My opinion:

• Identify the centre early.
• Define it simply and clearly.
• Get it right, so it won’t need to be changed.
• Build a coalition in support of it.
• If you get it wrong, it may be easier to start again.

This approach is aimed at both allowing flexibility within a movement, and collaboration with others.

And on the Right

Despite all the hoo-hah about “right wing” ascendancy in the blogosphere, in my opinion it is not the Conservatives who are the best organised.

The “plumbing” of building a party-based online movement at present perhaps has three essential aspects:

1. A blog aggregator to make grassroots opinions accessible.
2. A grass roots campaigning site for discussion and coordination for party activists.
3. A party organisation that understands blogging, and connects to the national and local party.

The biggest hole on the right is the lack of a Conservative blog aggregator since the demise of “Right-Links” earlier this year. I think that the Lib Dems are leading on 2 and 3, due to the relatively light touch national party input into Lib Dem Voice. They also have Lib Dem blogs, which does a good, focused, job. I’d also give a nod to Labourhome and Bloggers4Labour, with the footnote that they are handicapped both by being the government and the massive centralisation introduced (in my opinion) in the Labour party machine in the last decade.

On the lack of a Conservative blog aggregator, I view that as necessary for a proper online debate - so I have a mini-project in development at toryblogs.org.uk . If there is someone with time who wants to pick it up (I won’t be doing any more until the spring), I’d be more than happy to pick up a collaborator. The same goes for the other projects mentioned in this previous post.

Prominent bloggers with the ability to connect to the national and local media are an extra, and in my opinion the Conservatives are leading here.

As a kicker, Conservative and Labour internecine arguments tend to happen in public: less so for the Lib Dems as they have a private members’ forum at Lib Dem Voice.

I may explore this further in a future article.

Wrapping Up

Of course Sunny may have thought of all this, anyway - in which case I have wasted my time writing this article, and you have wasted your time reading it!

And so back to work.

Tags: sunny hundal, bruce forsyth, libdemvoice, bloggers4labour, libdemblogs, conservativehome, pickledpolitics, respect, labourhome

[tags]sunny hundal, bruce forsyth, libdemvoice, bloggers4labour, libdemblogs, conservativehome, pickledpolitics, respect, labourhome[/tags]