Labour needs a Robert Scoble

June 29th, 2006 - 12:43 | 6 comments

Why aren’t there any ministerial blogs? From my perspective, Labour seems to have a problem explaining its position. The Human Rights Act is a good example. The tabloid press despise the thing, and I rarely hear the opposite position, which surely exists. Despite occasional mutterings, Labour are surely in favour of it, but I don’t know where to look to find out why. Currently I’d turn to Labour bloggers for this. The major newspapers are no use, as decent explanation is difficult to find. There are some - David Aaranovitch etc. - who do a good job of properly investigating issues, but I don’t think it should be so hard to find. The Labour website carries little in the way of argument, instead concentrating on news and press releases. The Home Office website does a good job of explaining the law, but there’s very little argument in favour of ID cards, for example - there’s something about how good they’ll be, but nothing that addresses concerns I’ve seen elsewhere. I’m sure this already happens behind the scenes, and if I investigated enough I’d be able to find all the information I wanted. But, without meaning to sound lazy, it’s too hard. If only there were some way for the government to communicate without the filter of the media…

Ministers are busy people, but their offices could surely find somebody to run a blog. They could respond immediately to Tory arguments, or tabloid misrepresentation, and not have to worry so much about the newspapers taking one quote terribly out of context. The important thing would be to make it genuine; glorified press releases would be pointless. You want a Robert Scoble of the Labour Party - somebody happy to say ‘we screwed this up, but here’s what we doing to make it right’. Maybe that goes against the grain of modern politics, but I think it’s going to be necessary. Tony Blair’s great at explaining his position, but he’s not enough. The odd Guardian article or 10-word soundbite from other ministers just doesn’t cut it any more. I want to see John Reid tell me what the hell a respect squad would actually do. I want to see Patricia Hewitt explain why NHS redundancies are necessary. I want to see Alan Johnson point out the huge rise in school food standards, and be happy to acknowledge Jamie Oliver’s role in the affair. Would it be official government comment? Tricky. Would they allow comments? Probably not if they’ve ever looked at Comment is Free, but trackbacks maybe.

Sure, the majority of people don’t read blogs. But people who do (he says, tentatively) are often the people best equipped to communicate. An increasingly tech-literate younger generation is seeing a government that doesn’t know how to communicate with them. Blogging wouldn’t solve the problem of Labour’s increasingly out-of-touch image, but I think it would help.

Update: Hat-tip to Jo in the comments for pointing out David Miliband’s blog. He’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the blog certainly seems to be a good start. Should have done my research properly

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6 Responses to “Labour needs a Robert Scoble”

1 Neil Harding Jun 29th, 2006 at 2:22 pm

Andrew, you are absolutely right. All this talk of spin, yet the government is actually hopeless at outlining it’s position even when there is fantastic evidence to back up their position. It is sometimes left to the Lib Dems or none Labour members to point out why the tabloids are wrong or the Tories are talking rot, this can’t be right.

As you probably know, I tried to defend ID cards (and failed). It was very difficult to get hold of the information. It may well be that the technical concerns and cost problems are over-exagerated by NO2ID but with the government being so secretive about the figures it is impossible to know.
2 Jo Jun 29th, 2006 at 10:10 pm

David Miliband has a blog!
3 Andrew Jun 29th, 2006 at 11:40 pm

I did not know that - thanks! I shall check it out forthwith.
4 Paroxysm Jun 30th, 2006 at 3:44 am

The people who read blogs are ‘the people best equipped to communicate?’ Surely the people who read government documents (reliable information), as you yourself pointed out, are best equipped to communicate. The establishment of a blog that represents a particular party would be worthless; falling prey to similar propaganda nonsense to which you object in the effort to ‘communicate with the people’.

Its also both ethno- and geo-centric of you to suggest that blogging to some extent remedies this ‘problem’. What about people wishing to keep up to date with how the Labour Party are taking a hand in foreign affairs? Many people abroad, in the very countries directly impacted by Labour Politics (Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel etc), may not be able to afford a computer, may have to rely on paper (amazing, I know). These are just a few of the many glaringly obvious problems with your proposal. And these problems are inherent to the culture of blogging.

Blogging is simply an extension of the ‘pub philosopher’, seen literally in the case of the Euston manifesto. It has positive aspects, allowing people to communicate from diverse backgrounds and cultures, share information easily, meet friends etc. but of late is running counter to many of these positive attributes through the establishment of myopic, predetermined and culturally limited cliques. Some people reductively refer to this as ‘geekery’ but I disagree, it’s much more dangerous than that. You have eloquently identified the very reason for this danger in your post. ‘Bloggers’, as a culture, work from second hand information. I’m not talking about people who blog as a residual activity of work that is directly political, scholastic, theoretical, e.g. scholars. I’m referring to the person who - not because of laziness - but because of time, cannot do the necessary work required to speak with any authority on infinitely complex political debates.

Manifestos died with Modernism for the very reason that they didn’t take into account views beyond a very esoteric and elitist group. Pound’s disregard for pulp literature of the day and anything seen as formally incorrect etc. were ligated from the avant garde and depried of a voice amongst the people who made decisions. Today we have the reverse. Blogging has become such an alternative, pulpy, sub-cultural stodge that it is beginning to assume an identity which it considers above the populous. Your post supports this when you speak so egotistically of bloggers being better ‘equipped’. The ironic thing is that people who didn’t read blogs wouldn’t be subjected to that asinine assertion and you could feel justified in it on account of fellow bloggers praise.

I do not intend to attack you personally. Its the logic of your assertions perpetrated from a miniscule and inherently self-righteous platform. I care if you can’t be bothered to read the government documents and policies from scratch as this is the only way you’ll ever be able to comment on these issues. The information is out there, believe me, it’s the internet for goodness sake…use it properly!
5 Andrew Jun 30th, 2006 at 10:13 am

Well, thanks for that.
6 Paroxysm Jun 30th, 2006 at 12:21 pm

I apologise for my confrontational tone. I sometimes find it difficult to keep my temper and my politics seperate, as I’m sure most do. I do however believe in the bulk of my comment but perhaps neglected to mention how blogging does in part contribute to a contextualisation of politics and how it impacts on sectors of society. I just sometimes get so frustrated reading certain blogs and unnecessarily allow it to interfere with my approach.

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