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TYC is enjoying the summer vacation (and planning some changes for the new season), but we’ve not taken our eye off the ball entirely. Our chums over at KeepRightOnline spotted my Facebook profile picture – lovingly borrowed from a World War II British morale-boosting poster (you may be more familiar with the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ version).
It struck me, though, that this poster - Freedom is in Peril: Defend it with all your might – is deeply apropos the current political climate. The government is moribund, and nothing is more dangerous than a wounded foe. Desperate to cling on to their political existance New Labour are thrashing about for populist, opportunistic initiatives, and you can be sure that Liberty will, as always, be the first victim.
So, as KRO ask, what are you doing to defend freedom?
And for propoganda of your own, http://www.freedomisinperil.com/ do a sound range of ‘Freedom is in Peril’ merchandise.
(I found the site via Facebook’s targetted advertising – how scarily well FB knows me!)
Expect blogging to be light to non-existant this week – TYC is on holiday. Back in a week.
From 10pm tonight TheYoungConservative will be taking part in a 3 hour live blogging session of the European Election results as they come in. It’ll be open to the audience to add their say, too.
Here’s the page on ConservativeFuture.com where the blogging will be hosted, live.
It should be an interesting night. In the sound corner I’m joined by Tory Bear, whilst representing ‘the rest’ members of the other political parties youth movements have been invited.
I’m pleased and proud to announce that I’ll now be writing for the blog of Students for Liberty, the American student pro-freedom organisation whose conference we extensively documented last month on TYC.
In what we hope to run as a weekly column I’ll be offering their international audience a British perspective on the fight for freedom. Kicking things off is the inaugural post, in which I call for a global First Amendment, highlighting the past month’s pan-Atlantic assaults on free speech:
“There must be one rule for all, and that rule should be unqualified, unfettered free speech“
Tarasyn is back asking the questions with her first interview of 2009. This week she sits down with perhaps the centre-right’s most famous blogger – Iain Dale, who has some tips for public speaking and appearing on camera.
Iain Dale is one of Britain’s leading political commentators, with an impressive political record which ranges from writing on politics for the Daily Telegraph to publishing Total Politics magazine and standing for Parliament. What stands out about Iain is his representation of the modern Conservative Party in the media dominated age. I was interested to know what motivated Iain, and what we should expect next from him.
TheYoungConservative: Iain, as not only a writer, speaker and broadcaster, but also author of one of the most popular blogs in politics, what would you say is the key to a successful blog?
Iain Dale: Every blog is different, but I think keeping it quite personal is important. Effectively you’re building a little community, and sure, your readers want to read your viewpoint on various issues, but they quite like knowing a bit about you too. Regular posting is also important. I post generally about 5-10 times a day, and if I go for a few hours without posting anything I often get emails complaining – which is nice! But if you are a councillor it’s different. Most bloggers don’t need to post as often as I do.
TYC: How do you fit in the time to do it?!
ID: People imagine I spend hours blogging, whereas the truth is I do not. I probably spend an hour a day on it. If there’s a major political story running that might increase, but I do not spend every waking hour poring over a keyboard, contrary to popular rumour.
TYC: As a former financial journalist with Lloyd’s List, you must have a strong understanding of what is happening to the economy at the moment. Do you jump on the bandwagon of the Conservative Party and blame Gordon Brown, or do you see the situation we are in as inevitable no matter who is in government?
ID: While it is true that other countries are also affected by the credit crunch and a global downturn, ours is going to be worse than most, mainly because of this government’s economic and regulatory mismanagement over the last twelve years. The Conservative Party shouldn’t be afraid of saying so. They [Labour] had enough warnings about debt getting out of control, but their hubris knows no bounds.
TYC: How long do you see us in this crisis for? Should we worry as much as the BBC is telling us we should?
ID: Yes we should. I think this recession will be far deeper and far longer than any downturn I have experienced in my adult life. The next government is going to inherit a basket case of an economy. We can certainly forget about sharing the proceeds of growth and there won’t be any for some time. Even when it returns it will be incredibly fragile.
TYC: You have recently been signed up to the Specialist Speakers Bureau, and there is no doubt that you are talented when it come to public speaking, or even firing interview questions from behind the camera. Is this a learned art?
ID: To an extent, yes. I have never thought of myself as a very good public speaker. Parts of it do come naturally, but there are lots of tricks you can learn if you have an open mind and have the right people to learn from. Interacting with an audience is a key part of successful public speaking. I never understand politicians who think they can just arrive at an event, give a speech and then bugger off again. You need to meet your audience beforehand so you can bounce off them and work out how to make them laugh. If you can get them laughing in the first minute you’re on your way.
TYC: Top tips for anyone facing a political grilling live on camera?
ID: Don’t try to act, or play the part you think you are expected to play. Be yourself. If it’s pre-recorded don’t be afraid to ask to do it again if you are not satisfied with your answer. Try to smile. The person watching is probably taking more notice of you visually than to what you are saying. Don’t be intimidated by a famous interviewer and always ask what the programme requires. Generally, if it’s for a news bulletin you will get a 20 second clip, so try to speak in sentences and give them the sound-bite they want.
TYC: Anyone in politics at the moment you think could particularly benefit from taking these tips on board?
ID: So many politicians are incredibly bad on TV. You would think they would be more receptive to media training but most of them think they know it all. They don’t. Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper are dreadful on TV yet they clearly think they are brilliant at it.
TYC: What other political blogs do you read?
ID: My favourites are Dizzy, Guido, ConHome, Labour MP Tom Harris, Ben Brogan, Paul Waugh and Donal Blaney. But I have RSS feeds on about 250 blogs to enable me to compile my Daley Dozen list of the 12 best blogposts of the day. I now get people begging me to include them as they know they will get several hundred hits as a result!
TYC: You stood as a Conservative candidate at the last election – do you see yourself standing for Parliament again?
ID: I’m not sure to be honest. I am still on the Candidate’s List, but I haven’t applied for anything for more than a year 
now. Starting a new business like Total Politics is very time consuming and it wouldn’t be fair on the business to have been applying. However, the political virus never quite goes away and if the right seat came up in 2009, who knows? But I feel it is probably unlikely now.
TYC: Is becoming an elected official one of your goals?
ID: I would have loved to have been an MP, but if it doesn’t happen so be it. I’m suspicious of people who are obsessed by it. There are other things in life.
TYC: How did the idea of Total Politics come about?
ID: I thought there was a gap in the market which needed to be filled. I think that people interested in politics are very badly served by the magazine market. There’s only really the Spectator and the New Statesman. Both are fine magazine, but they don’t really cater for that group of people to whom politics is a lifestyle.
TYC: And finally, what are your New Year resolutions for 2009?
To lose more weight, to be less knee-jerk on my blog, to spend less money and to be nicer to people!
If you would like to nominate yourself or someone from your branch or organisation to be interviewed on TheYoungConservative please contact us at edward@theyoungconservative.co.uk or tarasyn@theyoungconservative.co.uk
Our Green Ribbon Campaign continues to gain traction online with flagship British political blogger ConservativeHome now sporting it. We’re pleased to see the blog that set in motion the chain of events that led to our creating the Ribbon now displaying it.
Our traffic is showing that the campaign is resonating far beyond young conservatives, and is being picked up by more established blogs, as well as simply aggrieved citizens keen to show their displeasure, and the literally ‘unwarranted’ police action against Damian Green. And who can blame them, after today’s dismal speech by Speaker Michael Martin? Is that the best they could come up with? If it’s the truth, why did it take so long for it to be explained? Keep the pressure on them, readers.
Is your blog supporting Damian Green? Let us know.
During the 2008 US Presidential Elections, one turning point was when the McCain campaign went negative – paling around with terrorists and all that. Conversely, the Obama team were credited for having run a positive campaign; however vapid ‘Change’ might be as a message. Over at Sassy Conservative Sahar analyses the lessons to be learnt from McCain and Obama campaigns. (We do love Arnie’s line, though, that “John McCain has served this country longer in a PoW camp than his opponent has served in the United States Senate. – that’s not negative, that’s fact!”).
Domestically, David Cameron favours making love not war with conservative critics, pushing positive imagery and rhetoric; focusing on issues not personal attacks. In both cases, it seems to resonate with voters.
So against this background of positive campaigns leading to positive results, it seems remarkable that Labourites insist on going negative time and again – a sign desperation? If it’s not dressing up as toffs to stalk Tory candidates and try rehash the lost class war, then it’s setting up proxy blogs to attack the Conservative Party. Unfortunately for them, every time they pull one of these stunts, it backfires.
Kudos then to fellow bloggers ToryBear and DizzyThinks for unmasking the Labourites’ latest botched attempt – toryparty.net. Dizzy has the story, as does TB. As a result of their probing and exposing over the last 36 hours the blog has mysteriously been taken offline! That’s the sort of activism we like to see!
But wait, didn’t Hazel Blears tell us that mean spirited malcontent blogs are the preserve of the Right? Perhaps if the Left didn’t insist on perpetrating these stunts, then there’d be less material to fuel our obsession with “unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy”. Irony…
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has used a speech to the Hansard Society on the subject of political disengagement to lash out at bloggers and career politicians.
Of bloggers she claimed that we’re obsessed with “unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy” and branded us “people with disdain for the political system and politicians”.
She continued,
“The most popular blogs are right-wing, ranging from the considered Tory views of Iain Dale, to the vicious nihilism of Guido Fawkes.”
“Unless and until political blogging ‘adds value’ to our political culture, by allowing new and disparate voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and pessimism.”
Whilst the anonymity of the internet may encourage a minority to unleash vitriol without fear of having to face their victims or substantiate their claims, it seems ludicrous to suggest that is in any way representative of the community as a whole. Blogging already adds vast ‘value’ to the political culture – the work of investigative bloggers in many elections has been crucial, and the blogs often beat the mainstream media to a story. As for the allegation of bias, well, I guess we learnt it from the BBC. And, Hazel, maybe electors and bloggers alike wouldn’t be so cynical and nihilistic if the likes of New Labour didn’t, say, promise a referendum, then refuse to hold one, and then seeing the appetite of the people for it continue to subvert the will of the people. Just a thought.
The claim that blogging is the preserve of the Right is also bizarre. Evidently she doesn’t read her own charming PPC Alex Hilton’s ‘Recess Monkey‘ blog, a preserve of socialist bitterness, who, amongst other things has reported the ‘death’ of Margaret Thatcher, been threatened with litigation by MPs and former CF Chairman Mark Clarke, and who is currently defending a defamation suit following an article on LabourHome. Blears’ whole comment on blogging sounds eerily reminiscent of the Democrats loathing of talk radio. Will we see some attempt at a New Labour Fairness Doctrine for bloggers?
As for career politicians, we might actually be in something approaching agreement. She submits that,
“Increasingly we have seen a ‘transmission belt’ from university activist, MPs’ researcher, think-tank staffer, special adviser, to Member of Parliament and ultimately to the front bench.”
Certainly, more real-world experience wouldn’t do any harm. Private sector fiscal discipline, for example. One thing we can emphatically agree with her on, though. We do need more people like “Conservative maverick David Davis”.
