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| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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The Conservatives have launched their latest pre-election weapon with the release of an online blog that will support tax relief, withdrawal from the euro and pre-emptive action against terrorists. The decision to place blogging centre stage of the Tory campaign is intended to generate people’s real views on politics, beyond the perceptions relayed through broadcast media. Tory ministers say the new site - conservativehome.com - will advocate a new era of “social conservatism” as the first of a three-pronged strategy to revive conservative politics and increase voter interaction. Blogging has already made significant political headway in the United States, where it was used as an effective method to bypass media outlets, typically regarded as less receptive to conservative ideas. Tim Montgomerie, who has studied how the Right made political gains in the US via the blog, is fronting the Tory campaign and is heading the Tory site. He has formerly worked as political secretary to Iain Duncan Smith but Tory HQ stresses that the web log is run independently of the Conservative Party. Despite this, his belief is that the service will not end up “rocking the boat” for the Tories, but instead will encourage people to break the power of conventional media by allowing voters to make their feelings known in an online diary. It is expected that the service will foster a values-based approach to politics, highlighted by the Tory championing of tax relief, withdrawal from the euro and pre-emptive strikes on terrorists. Likewise, it is likely that such a conservative line will see the blog promoting marriage between couples, while busily opposing the sale of arms to repressive regimes. According to the Times, the site’s biggest task is to challenge a “bias to the poor,” which the Tory blog has framed as its defining mission. However, the first phase of the site is to concentrate purely on calling the nation’s “social conservatives” to action before the expected polling day of May 5. Afterwards the second stage of the blog will begin immediately, in which it will call support from natural conservatives from faith and environmental communities to join forces to create “one nation” conservatism. The site’s creation raises the interesting question of what will happen to the Tory blog should Labour succeed in securing office for the third successive time. The news comes as former Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith said in a recent article that the “blogosphere” would become a big force in the UK, which could serve to boost conservatism. Research from the US confirms the growing influence of the internet blog, with 30 per cent of online users saying they regularly read so-called ‘online diaries.’ Experts at the Pew Internet and American Life Project also found that 7 per cent of the 120m US adults using the net have their own blog. This translates into about 8m blogs in the States alone - on the calculation of one blog per person. Brian Clark, President at new media specialist, ENG studios, said the power of the blog should not be underestimated “It’s a brand new space, but when you get the right kind of messaging in it, the results can be astonishing.” Meanwhile, the Tories have vowed to re-evaluate government IT programmes and to provide interactive video services for all UK citizens by 2013, if they win the next General Election. Mar 29, 2005 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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