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Politics Home: A Garbo Review
I am one of those people who can get completely immersed in pointless facts. Take Sky Sports News. To most people, that channel is offensive. I, on the other hand, am cannon fodder to the barrage of information that channel throws at its viewers every second of the day. Only trained fighter pilot and information geeks can take in so much information.
Sports and Politics
A typical moment in Sky Sports News time will have some lovely blonde women telling us about John Terry’s latest groin problem (yin and yang), a ticker across the bottom telling you what the latest scores are in the Rumbelows village invitation league four are, the latest news – usually telling you the same as the rather attractive blonde, and then down the right you have a running list of all the league tables ranging from the Premier league all the way down to the Wednesday break-time kick about league between class 4c and 4b. In short, it tells you all you never needed to know about sport.
And so to my other passion – politics. There has been a political shaped hole in my thirst for pointless knowledge for far too long; however, I did not know this until Monday.
Sports fans have their fill of information overload, news junkies can get their fix on a range of channels and how I wish I was addicted to stocks and shares – those numbers on the Bloomberg channel look like they could be so exciting if only they had some meaning – however pointless and boring. So imagine my delight when I first saw Politics Home!
Geeks Geeking: a Good Thing !
It is what every political geek has been waiting for. I love it that I can check back hourly and see whether the news station are now talking more about the housing crash than they were earlier and whether the slow start to the Mayoral election chitter-chatter has now become the thing that is most on Hugh Edwards’ lips. Today has already thrown up some real excitement – for some reason at 10am the Iraq inquiry leapt from being todays also ran story to being the second most talked about issue. I can’t wait until 1pm to find out the latest positions – it’s like watching that fake horse racing channel on sky… oh dear.
Then there is the Green Box – clever name chaps – AND a political news box (which seem to do roughly the same function) meaning every political news story from the press news wires are now in one place. I love it so much I cannot tell you. I have become Mr News Breaker – people are amazed at how I am picking up these stories so quickly and from such a diverse range of sources. I haven’t told anyone about Politics Home yet – it is making me look too good and I don’t want blow my cover.
Events, Dear Boy
Then we have the events section. Do you know that Boris is at Romford market today? Or that the Green Party is launching its manifesto? Do you care? I certainly don’t; well I wouldn’t have if I didn’t know in the first place, but I have this strange sense of well being now that I do know even if it serves no practical purpose to me whatsoever.
Where are the Fulham ladies?
It even has a sports section – though this is a bit half arsed. I need a proper fix if I am to know what is going on in sport – I mean, everyone knows Liverpool beat Arsenal last. What I want to know is how Fulham ladies are doing and what the latest is on the line up for next year’s boat race.
Colour Me .. er .. Black
I could stare at this website all day – which is saying something considering it looks like it was designed by a poorly sighted, colour blind technophobe. I am still getting to grips with it mind you – I mean, what is PHI100 anyway? Who cares – as long as I know that the credit crunch has received 134 column inches today and counting, I am happy. The man hours that must go in to this site are mind boggling! How on earth can these poor people keep it up and why are they doing it in the first place? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad they are, but will it last? Can it last?
Wrapping-Up
Politics Home: only for serious political geeks – but if you are, it is essential viewing.
And how many uber-political anoraks do you think exist in this country. I would intimate that it’s no more than 100 or so. Not enough to make a revenue stream or be remotely useful to anybody with a so-called “real life”
Do you think the single mum on benefits cares about PoliticsHome? Not even the local busy-body that sticks their nose in everybody’s business will care for it.
It saddens me that when politics is such an important issue and people are getting sick of politicians with their snouts in the trough that good money should be wasted on an insiders-only website that is exclusive to the masses.
Rather a masturbatory affair methinks.
I’d suggest that there are more than 100.
To me, Politics Home is a bit overwhelming for Daily Use - but I can see the value when i want to really research a story and find out who covered it. The archive functions look quite good. I can also see the site saving significant time for some people.
As you hint, the rub will be the business model. The lack of adverts suggests that they may be looking for sell a service to large organisations.
In the meantime, I’m sure that others will come along on a more popular level.
I think they’ve missed a few obvious things, and I’ll be doing a review from my “internet technical” perspective tomorrow - as a foil to Garbo’s “political commentator” angle.
Mr Garbo, I see you are alive and well but what about the Poliblogs? Did it do you in?
Percy Pigeon - I agree with Matt, I am sure their readership will well exceed 100 anoraks. However, the site in its current format will not appeal to the masses. Maybe they are not trying to though - it is not their responsibility to get the wider electorate interested in politics. If they want to just appeal to one person, then that is their choice.
The real question is where is the money coming from and how long can they keep all this up? I pity the fool who is measuring the column inches!
We should also bear in mind that this is still a beta version and the site has only been up a few days. I am sure it will evolve to reflect the needs of its readers. I, for one, am willing to give it some time.
Something fishy with the comments. The first 3 have gone.
I’ll look into it.
On the column inches, I thought that would be done by the same person who counts the mentions, and it’s probably electronic and done with a word count. After all, columns are varying width.
Matt
I am sure you are right about the column inches - I just liked the idea of some poor work experience kid sitting up all night with a ruler measuring newspapers articles in time for a 6am launch.
That’s better - I had spammed a lot by mistake <:-(