Telegraph political correspondent and web editor Michael Wilkinson has been appointed as head of digital content at the Liberal Democrats.
I'm delighted to say I'm joining the @LibDems as Head of Digital Content. I'm very proud of my time @Telegraph and all we have achieved.
— Michael Wilkinson (@ThatMichaelW) January 2, 2017
We’d like to wish Michael a warm welcome and the best of luck. We know a thing or two about digital content ourselves here at Liberal Democrat Voice and I hope we will have a constructive relationship.
For a flavour of what we might all look forward to, here are a few of Michael’s articles for the Telegraph:
EU referendum: Mark Carney warns Brexit is biggest risk to Britain’s financial stability
EU referendum: Brexit could take up to 10 years to happen, warns former top civil servant
Legalising cannabis in UK ‘would raise £1billion a year in taxes’
Clearly too good for the Telegraph. Welcome aboard.
* Joe Otten was the candidate for Sheffield Heeley in June 2017, is a councillor in Sheffield and is Tuesday editor of Liberal Democrat Voice.
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18 Comments
Oh dear, that’s 2017 spoiled before it even starts.
So Seamus Milne went to Winchester and issued a Maoist manifesto 43 years ago !!!!!
…. .and The Telegraph of all papers brands Winchester as elite ? What a gem of mature prize winning journalism.
Sorry Joe, but if that’s a flavour of what we can expect from Comrade Wilkinson, put the cat out. turn off the light and hide under the bed.
David, it might not be news if Milne had changed his mind in the meantime.
Web editor and political correspondent is an unexpected combination. The most important point is that the Liberal Democrat Party needs to doing a lot more in terms of its website. It needs to be a forum for constructive debate. This requires people in positions of authority in the party who are prepared to engage with members, but also some control to prevent the forum being overtaken by unrepresentative oddballs.
What I would suggest is a site similar to LDV, with volunteered articles approved by an editorial team with comments restricted to members, but open to public view.
As a political correspondent, Michael Wilkinson would not have difficulty in providing articles himself, but more importantly could have direct access to important political figures in the party from whom he could harvest comments and then present them on the website as a semi-official party commentary.
David. He hasn’t even started yet and you’re already dissing him. Give him a chance for goodness sake!
Then the the Milne story shouldn’t have been highlighted as significant and as a ” a flavour of what we might all look forward to”, Joe. So was that your selection or his ?
I hope he proves me wrong, Elaine.
Joe was providing a selection of Michael’s articles and he gav good summary. What is wrong with having a laugh at Seamus Milne’s expense. If we can’t laugh at the Stalinist, it’s certain that no one will be within the Corbynistas. Humour is not allowed.
Thank you for the article and all the comments. I’m delighted to be joining as Head of Digital Content at such a crucial time for the party.
Whilst I note that some people have picked up on various articles I have written during my time at The Telegraph, this isn’t really a focus or concern for my work with the Liberal Democrats, where I will be bringing my skills and experience in large-scale digital transformation projects.
There is a lot of work to be done. We have an incredible opportunity as a party to reach out digitally like never before and it would be great to have your support. More from me in due course!
Michael,
With your skills outside of comms and politics, we look forward to your appearance at the conference glee club this autumn.
Max
Martin – what you suggest is probably the last thing the party should be using its public facing website for.
Oh yes the selection was mine. The Mao one jumped out at me since I got the little red book for Christmas and I have been reading it. Worth another article.
Max Wilkinson:
There is very much a need for an active forum in which members can be in contact with leading figures in the party and to be able to discuss and contribute ideas. True, I am not so sure how much should be public, though I do not see why articles to initiate discussion should not be, for the most part, publicly available (I can see that open comments from members could become a hostage to fortune).
David Raw – I think the Mao/Milne thing may say more about JO than about Michael Wilkinson! Let’s wait and see…
Tony – I think you’re right and I suspected that this morning. If it’s not the SNP bogyman under the bed then it’s the Maoist one.
I gather Michael Wilkinson went to the same FE College as Tim Farron – (‘elite’ ?) – but I’m more than prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Happy to adopt your Squiff suggestion.
I love the way even mild humour, at the expense of the far left Seamus Milne , someone disliked by many as a journalist and backroom boy , being brought up on a Liberal Democrat site , and the mention of the wretched Mao, as anything but treated with kid gloves, gets our red guard Lord and friend Mr R hot and bothered by Joe and Michael !
Any Liberal who feels far to the left of Joe , and maddened by him,but not able to feel ten times worse towards Milne , and a hundred times so with regard to Mao, makes me glad this party is seen as to the right of once ,where it was ideologically in the so called good old days of the youth of the now veterans !
Welcome Michael. You’ve probably been told about these already, but there are various Facebook groups around digital campaigning / software development / party databases / website providers and the Party. They are:
Lib Dem Creatives: https://www.facebook.com/groups/419626791568430/
Lib Dem Digital Campaigning Forum: https://www.facebook.com/groups/448831421836357/
Lib Dem Software Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/274937246208727/
Lib Dems in Communications: https://www.facebook.com/groups/libdemsincomms/
Connect Users: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ConnectUsers/
Membership Portal Users: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ldmembership/
Prater Raines Foci CMS Users: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Foci2/
There are some other secret groups too I think, but as they’re secret I’d be remiss in mentioning them here :-D.
Hope all goes well for you working for the Party and that our digital comms are second to none going forward. Enjoy!
Thank you Gary for the warm welcome and the links, some of which I wasn’t aware of and have requested access to.
For the record I am on the left of the party and you can make as much fun as you like about Seamus Milne as far as I am concerned. He is off the scale, more suited to the SWP in normal circumstances.
Geoffrey
I am in the main , what I would call radical centre , moderate centre left , sometimes,on the whole I would never identify as on the left of our party . Your intelligent remarks show what I have always felt and always shall, the division between what I prefer to call classical Liberalism , rather than the narrow economic grounds for many important but not all,and the social Liberalism,we all identify with surely , is as of nothing today . We all who are Liberal Democrats , are rooted in the reality of now , whatever our policy stances . We share much . Seamus Mlne is a sympathiser with some wretched attitudes left over from an era of awful far left politics, of the type this party does not and should not go near ! I was once , in my overly idealistic youth , a Labour moderate, a liberal social democrat . I know what the far left are like , they were there on the fringes then , they are nearer the management of the Labour party now. It is not policy , though wrongheaded , it is tendency , we need to see for what it is .
It is militant , if not Militant !