Political Hack a Birmingham based Labour Party activist jumps to my defence (thankyou) for writing a blog.
I did not see Paul Dale's Iron Angle column as actually being an attack on the concept of running a blog.
I run a blog for a number of reasons. It is an effective communication tool.
It does not take that much time to post blog entries (less than emailing a press release).
There is another advantage of a blog in that it allows arguments to be fully tested. The somewhat arcane argument that Sutton Coldfield is not a Birmingham Parliamentary seat because it is a Parliamentary Borough in itself is only one that would get fully tested on the net.
Sitting in the chamber of the House of Commons I have been surprised at how badly informed some MPs are (of all parties). It is only really on the parliament channel that the interventions can be properly picked up. Blogs are another mechanism for this.
At the end of the day Nam et ipsa scienta postestas est Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
I translate that as "For indeed in itself knowledge is power".
For knowledge, however, to be powerful it needs to be true.
The internet and blogosphere is also somewhere that you can follow another concept I find interesting that of the meme
Best described as a viral type concept it is the form of idea or concept that has sufficient inbuilt merit that it travels from mind to mind.
A publicity stunt can have a meme associated with it. A good example of this is the concept that 80% of people are gagged by the electoral process in that potentially their voices are not listened to by the government. This meme started being expressed by the use of gags (see this blog) and has been used elsewhere since.
There is a further question of "why the cats". To which my answer is "Why not"
I did not see Paul Dale's Iron Angle column as actually being an attack on the concept of running a blog.
I run a blog for a number of reasons. It is an effective communication tool.
- I can put details on about issues relating to my constituency. They are then automatically indexed by the search engines so people can find current information.
- People who know I do this will know where to look.
- Although possibly 2/3rd of my constituents don't have access to net at the same time we are still putting out leaflets and the like.
- On a wider basis it prevents me from having to do press releases. Any newsworthy information can be put on the blog. I tend to work with a small number of journalists (eg Paul Dale, David Bell, Jonathan Walker, Jonathan Guthrie). This makes my life easier. If I have what I think a newsworthy story I will put it on the blog and talk to a specific journalist. National stories get picked up by the TV, Radio and press agencies from papers such as the Birmingham Post.
It does not take that much time to post blog entries (less than emailing a press release).
There is another advantage of a blog in that it allows arguments to be fully tested. The somewhat arcane argument that Sutton Coldfield is not a Birmingham Parliamentary seat because it is a Parliamentary Borough in itself is only one that would get fully tested on the net.
Sitting in the chamber of the House of Commons I have been surprised at how badly informed some MPs are (of all parties). It is only really on the parliament channel that the interventions can be properly picked up. Blogs are another mechanism for this.
At the end of the day Nam et ipsa scienta postestas est Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
I translate that as "For indeed in itself knowledge is power".
For knowledge, however, to be powerful it needs to be true.
The internet and blogosphere is also somewhere that you can follow another concept I find interesting that of the meme
Best described as a viral type concept it is the form of idea or concept that has sufficient inbuilt merit that it travels from mind to mind.
A publicity stunt can have a meme associated with it. A good example of this is the concept that 80% of people are gagged by the electoral process in that potentially their voices are not listened to by the government. This meme started being expressed by the use of gags (see this blog) and has been used elsewhere since.
There is a further question of "why the cats". To which my answer is "Why not"
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