No, not my campaign to enter the hallowed halls of Westminster – much to the relief of my colleagues who undoubtably feel they get more than enough of me on the council. Besides, I’m lucky enough to already have an excellent Lib Dem MP.
This is a new feature on the ALDC MyCouncillor blog service.
ALDC, the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors, offers a handy blogging service for all members. It’s based on the popular WordPress platform and customised to help busy councillors and campaigners get blogging with the minimum of fuss. Over 500 people already have an ALDC MyCouncillor blog – you can see the full list here.
All the blogs can be accessed at name.mycouncillor.org.uk, so mine is iainroberts.mycouncillor.org.uk. If you prefer, you can set up your own domain name.
ALDC have now added two new domains that work for every MyCouncillor blog: 4mp.org.uk and focusteam.org.uk.
So, just in case I turn out to be so foolish as to want to run for parliament, voters can reach my blog by visiting iainroberts.4mp.org.uk. And for campaigners who feel a bit uneasy publicising a mycouncillor domain name, focusteam.org.uk offers a good alternative.
ALDC members can sign up for their blog here. Lib Dem councillors and campaigners who aren’t currently members of ALDC should, of course, be ashamed. But you can cast off that shame by joining ALDC. And then sign up for a blog.
4 Comments
Don’t scare me like that Iain!
Is ALDC now moving into the business of providing IT services and out of providing campaign materials? (I can find nothing on the economy or health on their website for example), or supporting local councillors (ditto anything on changes to local government executive arrangements)
is this a sign of the times? Is it a good thing? I don’t know, I just know I’ve again been looking on their website for something that I thought would be useful for a leaflet I’m writing and ended up having to do my own research.
I remain a strong support of the idea of an independent councillors/grassroots campaigners organisation but I do wonder what I get for my subscription each year.
Isn’t providing a website template a campaigning service that supports local councillors though
It is. And that’s why I thought it was a good idea when first launched. (not least because as the person formerly responsible for membership retention I could see advantages in locking people into membership
However what now seems to be happening is that that aspect of the service is being enhanced whilst more basic things – eg
i) guides to candidate approval – which is likely to be in demand given the rule changes,
ii) campaign material on a key theme like the economy
iii) advice/guidance/briefings on changes to Executive arrangements, leader/elected mayor etc.
AFAICS none of those are available. I’m querying whether the focus is correct.
I’ve been involved in key seat campaigns at the last three general elections and I think the availability of information, ammuntion etc currently is worse than it has been in any of the preceeding three.