CAN LEFT BLOGGING RISE TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE TORY THREAT?
Rupa Huq recently reported some revival of pro-Labour blogging. This was in response to an article in August from Chris Paul pointing out that a number of pro-Labour bloggers had fallen by the wayside. An observation gleefully seized upon by the shameless self-promotion expert, Tory-Boy Iain Dale, as this confirms his ill-informed prejudice that the left has run out of ideas.
Of course, at one level blogging is just froth; but it has become an important adjunct to the conventional mainstream media; and occasionally does manage to set the political agenda. This is going to become increasingly important as a mechanism for holding the Tories up to scrutiny, given the very easy ride that Cameron is getting from the press.
Chris Paul’s summary was a catalogue of mainstream Labour bloggers giving up the fight, and of course one of the most prominent Labour bloggers, councillor Kerron Cross, has given up altogether, as Chris observed:
Will Parbury is not firing on all cylinders by any means.
Tom Miller 2.0 has “done a Kerron” and skulked away.
Recess Monkey was resting last time I looked.
Luke Akehurst is ticking over, but far from prolific.
Hamer Shawcroft’s British Bullshit Foundation is still sadly on ice.
John Leech Watch is not paying attention to John Bull any more.
Idiots 4 Labour are cackling maniacally only to themselves.
Bloggers 4 Labour is still running a comprehensive feed, but not much else.
Fightback, replacing a similar Labour ultra blog, was KO’d in Round One.
Ridiculous Politics has also packed in the good fight.
But Rupa Huq points out that there has been some revival, with a good new blog from Rob Newman; Luke Akerhurst out of hospital, and Will Parbury coming back from the Land of Twitter to blogging
To which I would add that Left Foot Forward really should become a daily read for everyone on the left; it is being fantastic during Tory Party Conference, picking up on news stories and giving a factually based response.
In some ways the most reliable guide to the reach of blogs is their wikkio ranking, which is based upon the number of links, but weighted so that links from other high scoring blogs count for more. This still doesn’t take into account readership numbers, but it is a good guide to whether or not a blog is likely to be noticed by mainstream media, or among political activists.
Using a somewhat broad definition of left, then wikkio shows that left blogging has about ten of the top forty blogs, and we could do better still if we linked to each other in a supportive way, instead of studiously ignoring one another.
Wikkio currently shows:
Liberal Conspiracy at 3
Labour List at 5
Tom Harris MP at 6
Harry’s Place at 7
Stumbling and Mumbling at 23
Hopi Sen at at 24
Pickled Politics at 25
Socialist Unity at 28
Next Left at 33
Dave’s Part at 39
Now there are in fact structural reasons why the left tends to have a semi-hostile attitude to each other, these are threefold fold; i) the traditional First past the Post elelctoral system has encouraged the Labour Party to be a big coalition, and therefore all effective electoral politics has gone through Labour, and those outside it have been regarded as not-serious; ii) the legacy of the divide in the labour movement over the USSR which has led many in the Labour Party to be deeply suspicious of non-members with opinions; iii) the legacy of toy-town “Leninism” that has led the British far-left to splinter into a mosaic of tiny sects, and to have a sectarian and stupid hostility to the Labour Party.
These legacies need to be overcome.
Elections for the European parliament, London Assembly, Welsh Assembly and Scottish parliament and local authorities are now done by proportional representation, and minor parties are now part of the mainstream; tactical voting and coalitions are understood by a more sophisticated and educated electorate; and the legacy of Blairism has perhaps irrevocably damaged the voting loyalty of many Labour supporters
The question of attitude to the USSR used to be a deep rift between the Labour Party and some to its left; and labour politicians, including some on the left, used to put a lot of effort into distancing themselves from activists outside the party. Not only has the USSR long gone, but the political landscape has changed so that there are many people with essentially mainstream labourist politics who find themselves outside the Labour Party, whether in the Greens, Respect, Plaid, SNP or no party. As Caroline Lucas recently observed, the Labour Party needs to stop thinking of One Big Tent, and instead start thinking maybe of a campsite of little tents – in which their tent is the biggest, but not the only one. Ken Livingstone has shown in London the wisdom of trying to build a broad progressive coalition, extending beyond party boundaries - we need to unite the anti-Tory majority, and argue our left positions within that broader coalition.
The legacy of competing tiny groups of true believers splitting hairs and arguing over the finest details of programmes that they would never have the social weight to implement also needs to be overcome, because it is utterly irrelevant to British politics.
Blogs have an important role to play, not only in providing a space for journalism and commentary outside the control of the mainstream media, but also in providing a space for debate and exchange of views, providing a nertwork of mutual support, and devloping new ideas. The left needs to get better at both of those tasks if we are to fight back to prevent a Tory win at the next election, or failing that to wage a determined and effective opposition to a Tory government
No!
Comment by Frank — 6 October, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
I couldn’t care less whether Blue-Labour or the Tories win the next election, THEY ARE THE SAME. The left is never going to recover if we keep peddling the same old vote Labour to keep the Tories out nonesense. Being seen to be associated with a deeply unpopular party and government is only going to make the left smaller and even less relevet than it is now. The left needs to be posing a clear alternative to the failed policies of the 3 main parties if it is to become a major force in British politics again. I’ll be spoiling my ballot paper at the next election.
Comment by paul c — 6 October, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Voting for Labour in this election is totally wrong if you believe in any kind of socialism.
Of course you can always abandon all of your politics and vote for something that has nothing in common with you. Doesn’t believe in any of your politics and is not significantly different to the Tories in anyway,
If some socialists believe in not being a socialist in anyway - then they should vote labour.
Comment by Futurecast — 6 October, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
For “toy town leninism” please substitute trotskyism.
Comment by Alfie — 6 October, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
“I’ll be spoiling my ballot paper at the next election.”
That’ll show ‘em!
Comment by in despair — 6 October, 2009 @ 6:37 pm
And Lenin’s Tomb coming up fast at 60
Comment by Anonymous — 6 October, 2009 @ 6:53 pm
Often, over the last 30 years, I have moaned about the absence of radical sources of analysis/info. The current blog situation addresses this absence with increasing confidence, variety and influence.
This has to be an improvement on the previous city centre paper sales, with each paper presenting a non-comprehensive version of events and opinion, and reliance on out-of-the-way bookshops.
Here’s to the future!
Comment by Richard.L. — 6 October, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
lets commit to working in a practical (canvassing, leafletting, donating) to Salma Yaqoob, Caroline Lucas and Dave Nellist.
Disunity is no problem if it is linked to solid practical election work!
Comment by Derek Wall — 6 October, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
I’ve no problem linking to other left blogs beyond my “toy town tradition” (kind of self defeating language your using here), lets just be clear what we mean by progressive.
Progressive means Anti war and anti-neo-liberal or it’s a meaningless phrase. Alastair Campbell and Harry’s Place don’t cut it, and if thats how you are thinking then you’ve lost it.
Lets not treat the 600,000 victims of New Labour as a footnote.
Comment by FFLP — 6 October, 2009 @ 10:39 pm
I agree with Derek Wall, there will be a number of candidates, be they Respect, socialist or Green, who it is well worth actively supporting next year. Beyond the couple of dozen Labour MPs who have demonstrated they have some sort of socialist principles, there is no point voting Labour. I will be voting Green and hopefully getting involved in the Respect campaigns in East London where I spend quite a bit of time. Labour has spent 12 years rubbishing the idea that social democractic parties can make any positive difference and the Tories now look set to carry on what Blair and Brown have been doing. I work in the public sector, so the idea that I would be encouraging other PCS members to vote for any of the main three “slasher” parties is a joke.
Comment by Nick Bird — 7 October, 2009 @ 12:10 am
#9 and #10 well said!
Comment by Jon — 7 October, 2009 @ 12:30 am
Left blogging is never going to win the battle of ideas with the right, because that is not what left blogs are about. Judging from the comments sections, Socialist Unity is read by 3 main sorts of people - radical leftists who want to argue with each other, some “decent” lefts who want to wind up the radical leftists, and a few passing right wingers who want to wind up everybody. Sometimes, when everyone behaves themselves and we argue politely and rationally, it can be useful for refining our own ideas. It can still be fun, even when they don’t. But this is never going to be the forum where we engage the right, still less the place where we convince the undecided.
Comment by Francis King — 7 October, 2009 @ 1:33 am
I have just heard of the sad loss of Dave Hann, author of ‘No Retreat’.
RIP Dave.
Comment by Red Rob — 7 October, 2009 @ 2:10 am
Are there any right-of-centre blogs which feature the opinionions of literate and well-informed people?
We have yet to see any!
Right-of-centre blogs are full of bile, badly-expressed and angry bile.
Comment by snitch and snatch — 7 October, 2009 @ 5:16 am
#12
“Judging from the comments sections, Socialist Unity is read by 3 main sorts of people - radical leftists who want to argue with each other, some “decent” lefts who want to wind up the radical leftists, and a few passing right wingers who want to wind up everybody”
Well yeah, but it is much harder to judge who reads a blog based upon the tiny minority of readers who make comments.
My impression from talking to people is that the readership is more mainstream than the comments suggest.
Also - thank goodness! this blog is not the only one on the left, and there is a broad spectrum of opinion on different web-sites.
Comment by Andy Newman — 7 October, 2009 @ 8:30 am
Going back to the main point of the post, the need for progressive blogs to cross link. Why not do something concrete?
I am happy to link any progressive blogs prepared to display the people’s charter logo, as this seems like a basic level of comittment to progressive ideas.
I am not that bothered about the specific politics behind the charter, it seems like a good place to start for now.
http://fivefingeredleftpunch.blogspot.com/ if you want me to link your blog.
Comment by FFLP — 7 October, 2009 @ 1:07 pm