Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has emailed party members today to publicise Saturday’s National Climate Change March in London (email reproduced below).
Hashtag fans like me particularly liked the PS: Nick is encouraging participants to use the hashtag #climatemarch on Twitter and Flickr. As far as I know, Nick Clegg is the first British politician to promote the use of hashtags.
Whilst it’s a powerful thing for thousands of people to join together in one place and show their solidarity for a cause, this is a way for individuals to give their own report on events. Tweets bearing the same hashtag can then be followed in real-time at sites such as this one. Another site, twemes.com aggregates tweets, flickr photos and other links as well.
Hashtagging proved very popular at September’s Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth as Alex Foster and I both blogged. Also during the Labour Conference, Lib Dem blogger James Graham’s tweet was picked up and reported by the BBC (scroll down to 14:46).
So if you’re going to Saturday’s march, try tagging your tweets and photos with #climatemarch, then we can all see you there!
Nick’s email in full:
In these troubled economic times many politicians are all too willing to forget about crucial environmental issues. Our party is standing firm on our principles. In Parliament Square, London on the afternoon of Saturday December 6th I’ll be speaking at the National Climate Change March to make it clear that the Liberal Democrats remain the only mainstream party willing to take the tough choices to safeguard our environment.
I want you to join me there.
Liberal Youth along with elected Liberal Democrats from across the country are going to be leading the Liberal Democrat contingent on the march. They are meeting at 11.30am at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.
I know that many Liberal Democrat members are already planning on going to this important event. I hope that you can make it too. We want as many Liberal Democrats on the march as possible in order to demonstrate clear our dedication to the environmental cause.
At Westminster we have been leading the way on strengthening the Government’s Climate Change Bill and Energy Bill. On climate change we tabled the successful amendment to increase the target for CO2 cuts by 2050 from 60% to 80%, and helped to ensure that international aviation and shipping emissions are reflected in the targets. We also backed successful amendments to the Energy Bill to bring in a system of ‘feed-in tariffs’ where individuals and communities will get a guaranteed price for the renewable energy they generate. Without Liberal Democrat pressure in the Commons and the Lords, it is unlikely that any of these changes would have been made.
We must keep up that pressure to ensure that the environment remains right at the top of the political agenda. This march is a chance to do that.
Best wishes,
Nick Clegg
Leader, Liberal DemocratsP.S. If you are going on the march and use Facebook or Twitter, please do make use of both to let people know that you’ll be going, and then when you are on the march. This sort of viral publicity is all the more important for times like the present where much of the mainstream media’s attention has moved away to other issues. Please use the tag #climatemarch on Twitter and Flickr so others can easily follow news about the march.
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12 Comments
Alan Coren once wrote a piece on the Futon Shop at the end of his road. He wrote of its arrival, of the hordes of people who used it, of the waning interest and eventually of its closure. He ended the article by lamenting that in all that time he had never found out what a futon was.
Hashtag. (n) type of guinea pig found mainly in the countryside around Lima, in Peru, characterised by its snub nose, long hind legs and disproportionately large testes, which Darwin believed were responsible for the disparity behind the hind and front legs. The testes are a delicacy in a tiny number of local villages whose residents twitter on endlessly about the quality of the meat.
Just because Alan Coren never found out what a futon was doesn’t mean that thousands of other people in the world don’t find them useful.
(If you can untangle the negatives and I haven’t got confused myself!)
Twitter is THE case of Emporers New Clothes.
If you want to text someone, use a phone
If you want to change your status update, use facebook.
I took one look at Twitter, realised it was pointless, but of course it’s impossible to delete my account.
What the heck are “hashtags” ? Who cares?
Liam: the last figures I saw, was that about 3 million messages are sent via Twitter each day. So whilst you’re right that it isn’t nearly as widely used as email or even Facebook, the answer to your question is “actually, quite a lot of people” 🙂
If you want to text someone, use a phone.
If you want to text lots of people at the same time, use a phone. Or use Twitter because it would take less time. D’you see?
Just because *you* can’t see something’s value doesn’t mean that it doesn’t *have* value.
“Hashtagging proved very popular at September’s Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth as Alex Foster and I both blogged.”
Uh-huh. I remember asking Mark about this in the cupboard at the time. Who’s using our hashtags, I said. Well, he said, I am. And? Alex is. And? Will is. And? This obscure little PR company is.
Right.
I don’t think you can be surprised that Voicers – including geek Voicers – are puzzled by our strange insistence that this is a massively important growth area. At the moment, it’s still wishful thinking and in-jokes.
There’s (as yet) nothing qualitatively new about Twitter. It hasn’t changed the way news is put together or the way media coverage of us is tilted. It just provides another outlet of reaction to journalists. At the moment we still get our blog posts picked up by MSM outlets far more often than our (or anybody else’s) tweets. I suspect that’s the basic truth sceptics and luddites are sensing, even if they don’t articulate it.
Alix: ahem, it was rather more than that – though in two figures rather than three.
There are 21 people in my office at the moment
Not a one has heard of Twitter.
And being called a Luddite is offensive, frankly.
That’s incredibly touchy, Liam. It should be perfectly obvious that I am not using it as a term of abuse. I’m fighting your corner, for goodness’ sake. There’s nothing wrong at all with being a luddite – particularly when, as here, it provides you with a useful b/s antennae.
Antenna.
And, indeed, *L*uddite.