Category Archives: Online politics

Iain Roberts

High Court clarifies blog owners’ liability for libellous comments

By Iain Roberts | Thu 8th April 2010 - 7:50 pm

Like most blogs, Lib Dem Voice encourages and accepts contributions from far and wide.  Not only do we take articles from Lib Dems and, on occasion, others, we also allow pretty much anyone to comment on blog posts.

But , if someone were to post a libellous or defamatory comment, could we be legally liable?

That’s the question the High Court has been considering in relation to an item posted on the Labourhome blog, and many site owners who might think they’re not liable may be in for a nasty shock.

In brief, a libellous post was made to the Labourhome website …

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Mark Pack

Test your knowledge of health policies

By Mark Pack | Thu 8th April 2010 - 6:50 pm

The Kings Fund has a fun little online quiz to test how well you know the health policies of the different parties. Good for a few minutes of relief from campaigning: www.kingsfund.org.uk/generalelection2010

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Mark Pack

Online campaigning: confirmation of email’s importance

By Mark Pack | Thu 8th April 2010 - 4:20 pm

I previously covered the Brunel study into how much campaigning is going on around the country, coming to the conclusion that it was “mediocre news for democracy, good news for the Lib Dems”.

Looking at more details of the poll (and thanks to the team for providing them), it’s striking by how widespread email campaigning is.

Of the people who said they were contacted by at least one campaign in February 2010, “mail” (probably including leaflets through the letterbox in the absence of a specific option for that) came out top:

92% received at least one item from Lib Dems, 89% from …

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Mark Pack

How do the media election websites compare? (UPDATED)

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th April 2010 - 11:50 pm

The FT beat me to the punch with a review of the different election websites, so I’ll give my review a slightly different focus: which are best for local information about candidates? And if you are a candidate (or helping a candidate) what online information should you worry about making sure is correct?

BBC:

  • More extensive constituency descriptions that others listed below, but otherwise the constituency pages are surprisingly skimpy by comparison with only very limited election results and candidate information.
  • Some links to BBC news stories where there has been one relevant to the constituency.
  • Uses Thrasher & Rallings for the

…

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Also posted in General Election | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

A must read site for people following the online general election campaign

By Mark Pack | Mon 5th April 2010 - 7:02 pm

A great new website has just been setup by Rob Fenwick (the founder of Lib Dem Voice and my colleague back in 2005 on the Liberal Democrat internet campaign): Campaign Digest.

It looks like it will become an essential source of information, particularly with its daily snapshots of the front pages of the main party websites – tracking how they change during the campaign – and its archiving of email content from the different campaigns.

Well worth bookmarking and visiting regularly.

Also posted in General Election | Tagged | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Social media: heavily used by candidates with best chances of winning

By Mark Pack | Mon 5th April 2010 - 4:20 pm

A ComRes survey of 101 Parliamentary candidates “who are likely to win or retain their seats” has found very heavy use of social media.

Around half the Parliamentary seats in the UK have not changed hands even once between different political parties in the last forty years, which helps explain why overall levels of take-up amongst MPs and candidates is usually on the range modest to quite good (though in fact often compare very well, for example, with large UK firms).

However, as this survey indicates, there are much higher than average levels of take-up amongst those were the election result is …

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Mark Pack

Is Tony Blair illegally exporting private data overseas?

By Mark Pack | Sun 4th April 2010 - 10:19 pm

I’ve previously covered the question of the secret owners behind TonyBlair4Labour.org, not to mention its unfortunate terms and conditions. Meanwhile the Telegraph has reported that the Conservatives have called for an inquiry into whether charity and political data is being mixed up and that the site’s data protection information has been changed since launched.

But there’s another issue I’ve spotted: the site looks to be storing in the US private data given by site visitors. However, the necessary legal steps to allow such data exports have not been taken.

To be more specific: the site’s IP address traces to a server in …

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Mark Pack

How YouTube is being used on the ground in the general election

By Mark Pack | Sun 4th April 2010 - 5:20 pm

Richard Osley as an entertaining piece on his blog titled, “The You Tube War: Hornsey and Wood Green”.

I’m not quite sure what Lynne Featherstone will make of the description of her as an “old aunt” 🙂 Not very gallant of you Richard, but the full description is friendly:

One of the reasons, Featherstone has been a hit locally, it seems, is her obvious knowledge of the area and her apparent interest in even the smallest of issues. She is the interfering old aunt that the fragile Labour council in Haringey must be sick to the back teeth of. Featherstone has after

…

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Mark Pack

How do Lib Dem MPs compare on Twitter? April update with a new number one

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd April 2010 - 9:20 am

Changes in position and score are since March’s figures, and the same caveats apply as before to these numbers from TweetLevel (i.e. Twitter isn’t the only thing in the world, and this isn’t the only way of measuring people’s influence on / use of Twitter).

New this month to Twitter are Evan Harris, Nick Harvey and Charles Kennedy, bringing the total number of tweeting Liberal Democrat MPs up to 30.

UPDATE: Mark Williams has also joined Twitter recently. Apologies for missing you first time round Mark.

New entrant Evan is straight in at the top of the list. That’s no fluke: Evan’s put the work into working out how to use Twitter well and has built up a good community which reaches out beyond the usual activists suspects. Paul Burstow’s rise up the table is the other striking move.

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Mark Pack

Welcome to the new bloggers…

By Mark Pack | Thu 1st April 2010 - 3:20 pm

Four blogs have recently joined Ryan’s Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a read and post a comment?

Whether you are a new or experience blogger yourself, you may also find our compilation of “how to blog” posts useful:

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Mark Pack

Votematch is back: which party most closely matches your policy preferences?

By Mark Pack | Thu 1st April 2010 - 12:10 pm

Following its British debut in the London and then European elections, Votematch is now up and running for the 2010 general election. The idea is a simple one – you answer 30 questions about different policies (less in Scotland or Wales because of devolution) and the site then tells you how closely your answers match those of different parties.

It’s got quite a few nice touches which show how the team have learnt both from experiences elsewhere, particularly the phenomenally successfully version used by one in three voters in Holland, and from their past experience in Britain. For example, you …

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Also posted in General Election | Tagged | 16 Comments
Mark Pack

Labservative: the party hits the streets to find out what the public thinks

By Mark Pack | Wed 31st March 2010 - 9:34 pm

“This is a man. This is a street. Let’s talk Labservative.” More Alan Partridge than your usual Party Political Broadcast fare:

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Also posted in General Election and Humour | Tagged | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Open Election Data project: sensible local election data on the way?

By Mark Pack | Wed 31st March 2010 - 9:40 am

It’s good to see the Open Election Data project starting to take off. The issue is very simple: lots of people make use, or would make use, of local election data but it’s usually a real pig to get hold of details.

At the moment, there are annual books – but they’re on paper, expensive and take several months to appear. There are summaries from the likes of the BBC – an excellent public service, but the more local and detailed the data you need the more rapidly you find the limitations. There are also local council websites – but …

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Mark Pack

Labservative.com: reaction so far

By Mark Pack | Tue 30th March 2010 - 7:14 pm

Earlier today Stephen covered the launch of www.labservative.com saying,

The Labservative pitch is clear enough: Labour and the Tories are way too similar, and neither is capable of producing change. It’s a familiar enough Lib Dem campaign charge. It’s a pleasantly unfamiliar position for the party to be making the point in a wittily Web 2.0 way. Well done, Cowley Street!

The site is already doing very well at garnering coverage – and positive coverage no less (did someone mutter CashGordon?):

  • Lib Dems target ‘Labservatives’ with guerilla advertising campaign – The Guardian
  • The Lib Dems have launched quite an effective site

…

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Also posted in General Election and Humour | Tagged | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems launch Labservative.com

By Stephen Tall | Tue 30th March 2010 - 4:10 pm

Lib Dems still reeling from Vince Cable’s debate victory in Ask the Chancellors, have another reason to be reeling today … the party has launched a subversive multimedia viral ad campaign – www.labservative.com – and it’s a 24-carat success.

The Labservative pitch is clear enough: Labour and the Tories are way too similar, and neither is capable of producing change. It’s a familiar enough Lib Dem campaign charge. It’s a pleasantly unfamiliar position for the party to be making the point in a wittily Web 2.0 way. Well done, Cowley Street!

Here’s the video:

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Mark Pack

Crowd sourcing: the political future or a load of hype?

By Mark Pack | Tue 30th March 2010 - 3:20 pm

Rory Cellan-Jones has written one of the best posts I’ve read this year on the internet and political campaigning – i.e. it takes the impact of the internet seriously but doesn’t swallow all the hype. He starts:

Are the political parties now too impoverished – or just too bone idle – to do the basic work of research and campaigning by themselves? Or do they really believe in the wisdom of crowds? 
I ask because both Labour and the Conservatives appear to have caught the crowdsourcing bug.

The rest of the article is a good piece of analysis, not taking Tory and …

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Philip Sheldrake

In Vince Cable We Trust

By Philip Sheldrake | Tue 30th March 2010 - 11:50 am

A pretty obvious statement to make on this site, “In Vince Cable We Trust”, but it’s also the name for a new campaign established by a small group of marketing, communications and technology professionals with the single stated aim of making Vince Cable the next Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The group is apolitical. In fact, despite being the leader of this merry band, I have voted for all three main parties at some point in my life. But with all government departments’ policy making being strangled by the emptiness of the public purse, the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer will …

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Jennie Rigg

Electioneering the social networking way

By Jennie Rigg | Thu 25th March 2010 - 11:15 am

So you’ve been selected as a candidate for council or general election as a Lib Dem. Hurrah! The first step on the path to world domination and ever-lasting glory has been taken, and now you’re wondering what the next step is. You look at your campaign budget. You realise that thruppence ha’penny and a tin of organic pasta sauce is not going to go as far as the Ashcroft millions the Tories have access to, or the union funding of Labour. You’re going to have to use all your wiles and cunning to even get noticed as a member of …

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Helen Duffett

The first Google Street View Liberal Democrat superboard of spring?

By Helen Duffett | Wed 24th March 2010 - 8:50 am

First we brought you a smudge.

But now there’s no mistaking this Liberal Democrat superboard on Google Streetview.

Well, I say spring, but this image from Bedford looks as though it was taken in autumn – during the campaign to elect Dave Hodgson as mayor?

Anyway, now that the stakes have been raised (ahem), has anyone spotted a more impressive political campaign poster on Google Street View?

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Mark Pack

Like a yeti in a barber shop?

By Mark Pack | Tue 23rd March 2010 - 10:58 pm

With that unconventional question, Liberal Democrat MP David Heath has joined the ranks of blogging MPs (having previously tried out  a few posts that were simply his newspaper column reproduced):

I’m not sure the resemblance is that obvious, but that’s what Ann Treneman called me in the Times this morning. I guess it’s better than “like a Tajik with toothache”, which is what her predecessor Matthew Parris once came up with.

You can enjoy the rest of David’s blog at http://davidwsjheath.wordpress.com/

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Helen Duffett

Social media explained in a new guide for councillors

By Helen Duffett | Tue 23rd March 2010 - 3:35 pm

The Leadership Centre for local government has launched a new website: The councillors’ guide to social media.

The site has a variety of information for councillors, and is particularly accessible for those who haven’t yet tried this way of communicating.

Here’s a flavour:

  • Top ten reasons to use social media

    •  

  • Banished! Ten social media myths

    •  

  • Getting started

    •  

  • Top ten councillors on Twitter which features four Liberal Democrats (including Lib Dem Voice editors Sara Bedford and Alex Foster).

    •  

  • Opportunities not taken is particularly interesting, as it highlights areas for improvement. It says that councillors and officers tend to face cultural, rather than technical barriers to using social media. Some councils still lack a clear social media policy for councillors or officers, either in a personal or professional capacity. Many councils routinely block access to social networking sites on their computers. The guide suggests ways for councillors to hold their councils to account over their social media approach.

    •  

    Connected councillors – a guide to using social media to support local leadership – is available as an interactive version and also downloadable as a pdf.

    The site also features a video of Lib Dem Councillor for Redlands (and 2009 LDV Blog of the Year shortlistee for her use of social media) Daisy Benson explaining why she uses social media:

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    Alex Foster

    Who made the threatening #cashgordon phone call?

    By Alex Foster | Tue 23rd March 2010 - 9:12 am

    Are you up to speed with the mess the Tories made out of trying to use social media yesterday? They launched a website trying to criticise Gordon Brown for something or other. Part of the site included a twitter feed so that any twitter user using the hashtag #cashgordon could get their words on the site. Users quickly found out that these were not screened before going live, which meant you could get anti-Tory sentiment onto the Tory website. And then the more technically minded twitterati discovered that if you included some code in your tweet, you …

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    Mark Pack

    Summary of today’s #cashgordon social media silliness

    By Mark Pack | Mon 22nd March 2010 - 4:49 pm

    Tories buy campaigning package off the shelf from US company.

    Company also does some rather right wing work. This is either outrageous (Right wing? You shock me!) or unsurprising (Americans? Right wing? You surprise me!)

    Package as launched by Tories includes unmoderated twitter stream.

    Unflattering tweets start appearing.

    Site pulled.

    Lesson for the day: unmoderated feeds of content on political sites bring tears before bedtime. Those who have been awake for the last decade may not wish to call this “news”.

    PS Myself, I’d have been suspicious of a US supplier that advertisers a “one pager” which is actually two …

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    Mark Pack

    Welcome to the new bloggers…

    By Mark Pack | Fri 19th March 2010 - 12:50 pm

    Six blogs have recently joined Ryan’s Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

    Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a read and post a comment?

    Whether you are a new or experience blogger yourself, you may also find our compilation of “how to blog” posts useful:

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    Mark Pack

    Welcome to Lib Dem TV

    By Mark Pack | Thu 18th March 2010 - 3:20 pm

    Liberal Democrat blogger Mark Thompson has launched a new site, Lib Dem TV:

    On it I intend to put up any interviews or other sorts of footage involving Lib Dem members and candidates that I can generate. I am also happy to post any relevant footage from other Lib Dem activists that might be of interest more widely.

    You can see Lib Dem TV here.

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    Mark Pack

    What happens to MPs’ websites when Parliament is dissolved?

    By Mark Pack | Fri 12th March 2010 - 2:50 pm

    There was a little flurry of interest last year as to whether MPs with “MP” in their Twitter name would face a problem after Parliament is officially dissolved for the general election. That’s because after that point technically no-one is an MP and you’re not allowed to call yourself an MP if you aren’t one. That story was rather over-played though it did spur me to dig out quite what the sanctions would be, which in turns out isn’t that simple a question to answer.

    But what about MPs’ websites and text on them saying they are an MP? That is potentially …

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    Mark Pack

    Is this a Google Street View first?

    By Mark Pack | Thu 11th March 2010 - 9:59 pm

    Take a look at this. To you it may be a smudge, but to the eagled-eyed politico it’s Google Street View showing a political campaign poster (for the Burnley Liberal Democrats’ campaign to save the local hospital). Is this the first time a political campaign poster has been caught on Google Street View?

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    Mark Pack

    What happens if you fail to include an imprint in an online advert?

    By Mark Pack | Thu 11th March 2010 - 3:20 pm

    One for the techno-legal-political geeks amongst us (hello? anyone still there…?).

    Last year when writing about the issues with online imprint rules in the UK I made reference to Florida where:

    the Florida Election Commission has banned the use of Google Ads because they necessarily do not include the Florida equivalent of an election imprint – as there isn’t enough room. That ruling is being contested, and may yet trigger a change in the law but it shows the risk of doing nothing and hoping all will come out okay.

    The ruling was indeed contested and it was decided that the candidate …

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    Also posted in Election law | Tagged | 2 Comments
    Mark Pack

    How do the Lib Dem MPs compare on Twitter? March update

    By Mark Pack | Wed 3rd March 2010 - 11:50 am

    Changes in position and score are since February’s figures, and the same caveats apply as before to these numbers from TweetLevel (i.e. Twitter isn’t the only thing in the world, and this isn’t the only way of measuring people’s influence on / use of Twitter):

    1. (nc) nick_clegg 55 (-4)
    2. (nc) joswinson 52 (nc)
    3. (+3)  SandraGidley 46 (+6)
    4=. (-1) lfeatherstone 44 (-2)
    4=. (+1) philwillismp 44 (+2)
    6. (-2) vincecable 42 (-2)
    7. (+1) normanlamb 40 (+4)
    8. (+1) willie_rennie 37 (+4)
    9. (-2) acarmichaelmp 33 (-4)
    10=. (nc). GregMulholland1 32 (nc)
    10=. (+6)  jgoldsworthy 32 (+6)
    10=. (+1) SusanKramer 32 (+2)
    13=. (+3) mooremichaelk 30 (+4)
    13=. (-1) timfarron …

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    Tagged | 7 Comments
    Mark Pack

    Welcome to the new bloggers…

    By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd March 2010 - 12:50 pm

    Five blogs have recently joined Ryan’s Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

    Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a read and post a comment?

    Whether you are a new or experience blogger yourself, you may also find our compilation of “how to blog” posts useful:

    Continue reading »
    Tagged | 2 Comments
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