And another thing…

“..or most Labour blogs are just rubbish”

Rem acu tetigisti, as the ancient Greeks used to say.

On both a personal and a professional (I am a web developer/consultant( this dichotomy has always interested me, particularly as it appears to be the diametrical opposite of the US postion. The US had moveon and so on and while Drudge is painted as right wing, really, it’s just a news aggregator.

I concluded that the situation is a result of mindest. Right wingers, particularly the self-starters among them, tend to be better at the kind of single-minded solo pursuit that blogging is, at present. Better, that is, than people who believe in collectivism and look to their peers for validation and approval, or a committee’s stamp, before voicing what they feel is the approved collective view.

The difference, in this regard (I’m going to suggest) is that people who believe in collective action as the norm are less capable of expressing their individual views in compelling ways via blogs. The left in the UK is bound by archaic notions of collective action wheres the US ‘left’ is more ‘liberal’ and acts according to more individualistic principles allowing it more natural expression on the web.

It’s probably a mixture of all of those theories, maybe chucking in the one about the right being more individualistic and “getting” the bottom-up approach, unlike the communitarian top-down approach that some in Labour politics espouse.

It’ll be interesting to see whether new blogs emerge to challenge Guido and Iain’s dominance of the top 2 places. The cut-off in readership is huge after them. There seem to be a few giants, and millions of tiny people around them.

Charlotte Gore’s probably also right, and it ties into your theory of timing – it’s a question of habit, where the top two are read all the time, and links are clicked and the rest discovered by those more interested in politics, getting progressively obsessed with it, the smaller the blog.

I think you hit the nail on the head with your second last sentence: “most Labour blogs are just rubbish”.

In general they tend to be shouty, sycophantic, pathetically tribal and have the “voice” and style of a student union handout – when they wake up and realise that the average blog reader does not fit the profile of the average Daily Mirror reader, they might make some headway.

I think your final paragraph sums it up nicely.

Also, the Labour blogs on the whole just follow the party line … there’s no discussion; no dissent; no humour and nothing much of any interest unless you’re a died in the wool Labour supporter.

You’re an exception … which is why I still read yours.

Messed up over the Gurkhas didn’t you! Don’t you think its about time you abandoned Labour to its fate and crossed the floor.

Tom,

In 2005 I think that there were many voters giving Labour “one last chance”. I was one of them. I think you may find that a many of Iain’s readers are ex-Labour voters. There’s nothing worse than an ex-smoker. And maybe the same can be said for ex-labour supporters.

Your favourite man, Dan Hannan, has an interesting view on this.

He believes that ideologically, Lefties require more control and ‘top down’ solutions, neither of which filter through particularly well to the individuality of blogging.

That is to say, the leftie view that ‘the state knows best’ doesn’t make for much interesting reading on a blog if all one does is parrot the party line, but if you are a true leftie then that is all you can do.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2009/04/12/blogs_have_changed_politics_forever_good_news_for_libertarians_bad_news_for_lefties

With the BBC being so pro labour, blogging gives the right of centre people a home.
This gives a balance to the left wing BBC.
For example if anyone wants to understand the finance crisis in Britain you only need to read John Redwoods blog.
He explains things that the BBC do not for fear of upsetting the government. Remember a DG of the BBC was sacked by Labour for telling the truth about the Iraq war. so there is also a fear of retrebution by labour onto the BBC if the BBC goes too far in attacking the government.Blogers say it as it is and Labour do not like it.They tell you anything but the truth.

I just resent that left-wing blogs is generally taken to mean Labour blogs. There’s some great SNP blogs out there, even some half-decent Lib Dem ones

No, I think even the left-wing/right-wing debate is getting old hat these days. Is Iain Dale necessarily more to the right of you Tom?

I’m not having a go, I just think the world is much more complex than placing people on a 2-dimensional line.

As for the ascendency of Tory blogs. It’s simply easier to blog when in opposition. I know a lot of people who have told me personally that the best thing that could have happened for your blog Tom is for you to have been sacked as a Minister.

I’m sure you wouldn’t have seen it that way yourself but I reckon they’ve been proved right. ‘And Another Thing’ weas good before but it’s gone from strength to strength recently.

Thank you, Jeff. FYI, I try always to refer to my own blog as a Labour one rather than a left wing one.

I think everybody asks this question the wrong way round.

The reason left wing/Labour blogs have not got as high a readership as right wing blogs is not because the bloggers aren’t as good.

It’s because there’s fewer left wing readers of blogs.

This means the market for left wing blogs is not as broad. Fewer readers means lower readership, which means fewer links, which means less influence and less ‘brand recognition’.

At the moment, most people who regularly read blogs are right-wing. It’s partially a product of being in opposition – left wingers don’t have as much motive to get on the internet and find someone who represents their views. By contrast the American left felt disenfranchised by Bush and had nowhere other than the internet to air their opinions.

Iain and Guido are top of the list because they have broad appeal across the political divides, not because they are necessarily better than anyone else. You, Tom, lose yourself a considerable slice of your audience by being overly tribal – although as an MP that’s understandable. I imagine (or hope) you view the success of this blog less in terms of raw numbers and more in terms of public engagement, though, so that wouldn’t matter so much to you.

The point being that the amount of readers a blog gets isn’t necessarily linked to the quality of the blog – although this makes a difference, it’s far more strongly linked to the number of potential readers there are out there who are interested in that blog’s point of view.

Constantly Furious – which ancient Greeks are you referring to who spoke Latin?

Anyway, maybe most of the erudite ‘left wingers’ are too ashamed to plead New Labour’s cause. I tend to look at LabourList most days and many of the articles beggar belief. The ‘big names’ seem to have stopped writing for it since Sleazegate and the honest campaigners, trade unionists and the like who contribute don’t often realise that a) Labour got us into this mess and can’t get us out and b) the Inner Party don’t give a stuff about what they think anyway.

Yes, that’s it! New Labour just doesn’t listen, so all-in-all, who wants to blog about how wonderful NewLab is?

Don’t we have a similar situation in the old media as well?

Grauniad and the independent are left wing and make a loss, the formely torygraph (now the leaders mouthpiece) is losing readers.

The BBC is very biased in favour of the labour/leftwing, look at its viewing figures.

Could it be that people actually want fair and factual reporting of events?

On the blogs, it may be because the succesful blogs started before the labour activists caught on to the power of the web. Being first they gained the readership and success breeds success.

Also helps that labour have provided such a wealth of stories to blog about.

You just dont get it. The righr of centre blogs will be just as critical of a Tory government, Most Labour blogs just go along with its party line and thats the difference.If Cameron does not do the biz he will go I can assure you.
Labour have never sacked a poor leader as we all see again.

Labour blogs are well considered, calm, thoughtful and entirely lacking in that quality of passion, wit and iconoclasm that makes a blog worth reading.

Tom is an exception, though even he seems a little resistant to those expressions of contrary world views which add so much spice.

Opposition will bring an improvement, and I expect the Labour blogs to develop.

There was an article a couple of weeks ago following the fall-out from McBride and Draper in the Independent by Steve Richards (not a champion of the government by any means). Draper’s Labourlist had become a target, Richards said, because ‘he was supporting the government and they regarded this as unacceptable. They [the Tory blogosphere] pointed out, rightly, that sites like the brilliantly innovative ConservativeHome contained criticism of the Tory leadership. But what they did not acknowledge was that there are plenty of places to go if you wish to find strong support for the Conservatives’ leadership. There is almost nowhere to find anyone putting arguments that highlight the positive impact of some government policies. Yet in another bizarre twist, in spite of the never-ending onslaughts on Brown and the government in the media, many of them justified, the right-wing bloggers accuse political journalists of colluding with the Brown regime, of dancing to McBride’s tunes. Anyone would think Brown has had a good press over the last couple of years.’ http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-open-contempt-for-politicians-is-neither-daring-nor-clever-1669919.html

As the party in government, it is difficult for Labour bloggers to make the case for the Labour policies without sounding like establishment stooges. The internet by its nature provides a platform for any kind of comment. For supporters of the Tories, it provides a voice in which to vent their frustration at being in opposition. I also suspect that many Tory supporters have more time on their hands to spend on the internet, for whatever reason (eg retirement) and really need to spend their time in more positive activities (like voluntary work for example).

I don’t agree with the assertion that Labour blogs are somehow written by committee. Tom’s blog obviously isn’t, nor are blogs such as Sadie’s Tavern, Hopi Sen, Recess Monkey or Snowflake5, to name a few.

Johnny Norfolk is spot on. I have already decided that if I continue to blog after the General election, it will be to keep David Cameron to his promises and to keep the government honest.

I’ve put a lot of time and effort into supporting Cameron through my blog. If he turns out to be another Gordon Brown he will face the anger of the entire Conservative blogosphere.

Nicky
I’m a Labour Party member and I blog in a modest way, so when you say “As the party in government, it is difficult for Labour bloggers to make the case for the Labour policies without sounding like establishment stooges.”, I would agree.

But there’s more to it: I have no problem defending the Labour Government’s actions on the NHS, Education, Poverty and social issues in general. We have done a good job. But I am not going to spring enthusiastically to the defence of (say) academy schools or hospital trusts. It just doesn’t seem like a traditional Labour approach to community. So I would probably let any argument on these things go by default.

ID cards…. as a party member for 25+ years, I have not got a clue why the government is so insistent on these. I have heard no coherent explanantion of what good they will do, and why that good outweighs the obvious civil liberties downside. So I will not get too involved in that argument either.

Or even PPP, which did a good job of taking spending off balance sheet and getting schools and hospitals built, but which generates such a volume of opposition….Once you have made your point 2 or 3 times, it gets tiring and you are outshouted by the certainty of the oppositionists.

So, the “Blairite” agenda itself mitigates against most active party bloggers opening up debates on certain issues.

It’s a bit easier in Scotland, where we are in opposition, but even so, the party at large must get its arguments straight and communicate them better. Otherwise us Labour bloggers will continue to be hamstrung to a great extent.

Thanks Alex, I see why your position is problematic. Interesting post.