World Cup blogs - 4 comments
As I'm sure you've already heard from the BBC, Harry's Place, and possible even our own links from Friday morning, two Labour figures are blogging about the (football) World Cup: Alastair Campbell and Sadiq Khan.
I'm someone who'll happily watch every match that's on without wanting to read a single word in print about them, so the blogs are not necessarily for me. But if they're done willingly, honestly, and at no great expense, I don't see why they should be condemned.
Clearly there's a hell of a lot more to politics, to Labour politics, and Labour's blogging efforts than this (more on that topic later), but this approach does seem to have attracted comments from people who wouldn't normally participate. That's good, and I really don't have much time for this kind of comment:
The Tories are on the march, are (sic) membership is shot to pieces and they spend our subs on this sexist prat.Update: This is probably my favourite World Cup post so far. Sublime.
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4 comments so far...
I don't care if the Labour party's website does or does not host blogs about the World Cup. But I do care when my membership fees are used to pay for sexist tripe...
Alistair Campbell is, in the eyes of the general public one of the most hated of the New Labour project. To send him and some no-mark MP out to watch the World Cup, apparently at the expense of the Labour Party, and then advertise this to the Labour Supporters Network, will not encourage a single one of those supporters to become members.
And what exactly is the point of Campbells 'postcards from Germany'? Will he be talking about football matches (and if so why is this being prioritised as information to send to members and supporters?) or will he be shoehorning in 'issues of the day' (I dread to think how that could work).
Moreover, why is this happening now, when party funding and expenditure is under particular scrutiny, following the cash for peerages scandal, and during a review of party funding?
I don't know if this is the sort of comment you don't have time for, but frankly I'm pretty angry at party HQ's sense of priorities. Mind you the whole country goes to pot every time we manage to convince ourselves that we have a shot of winning some international competition, so I shouldn't be too surprised.
I'm not really sure what the benefits of a political party blogging on the world cup really is. However after hearing what good old Alastair had to say about women and football I just had to chip in. I would appreciate comments and feedback from you and your readers.
Well, it's not my cup of tea, and not my vision of what a blog should be, or what our strategy should be. But this kind of thing is more in tune with the public & Labour mood than my going on about RSS or Austrian economists, so I feel I ought to 'live and let live' (within reason), while trying to improve the strategy for the future.
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