Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner and I love London town, but from where I sit by far the most newsworthy winner in the recent round of British local elections was the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. However, unless I am very much mistaken (which is entirely possible), the Boris Johnson blog, far from being at the centre of the Boris campaign, was put on ice for the duration, and looks like staying there.
Or am I missing something? Is there another Boris Johnson blog? Is there one for his currently very neglected constituency (the one linked to above), and another blog (not linked to because I can not find any such thing) about him trying to be and now being the Mayor of London?
If my failure to spot it means that there is indeed no Boris For (Boris Is) Mayor blog, then I think that’s rather a telling fact about the limits of internet political campaigning in Britain. The way Boris himself told it when interviewed on the telly at the very end of his campaign, he did his campaigning not via any internet efforts, but by trekking around London making personal appearances and being on local radio stations. You might have thought, what with so much of success in local politics being the art of attracting any attention at all, and what with Boris having done this so very, very well and having got his own vote out so very, very successfully, a blog might have been part of it.
Or is the thing that I am missing that other bloggers, like Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale, made crucial contributions to Boris becoming Mayor by campaigning on his behalf, under the opposing radar so to speak, making points in his favour and claims on his behalf that he himself did not have to worry about and which he was not personally obliged then to, as they say, clarify? Boris would no more have his own campaigning blog than he would set up and run his own radio station. In politics, it seems, either you do it, or you blog, but, you don’t do both. This makes sense, I suppose. Blogging works best when you blog your mind, and tell it how you see it. Blogging means having an authentic voice. Politics, on the other hand … Some bloggers – this one, for instance, in something he said at a gathering I was at – have complained that Boris’s authentic voice was also muted, for the duration. Something to do with him not drinking, perhaps? (Bring back the booze I say.)
On the other hand, why didn’t any of Boris’s mere supporters gang up and run a Boris-is-here-today-and-there-tomorrow Boris-thinks-this-Boris-says-that blog, at least while the campaign itself lasted? Not worth the bother, presumably.
In other local election news, my brother Toby Micklethwait (UKIP) came a decent (but to him I daresay deeply disappointing) second to the Conservatives in Englefield Green west, very near to where we were raised and where our Mum still lives. He too accomplished what he accomplished not with any fancy blogging or internetting, but with lots of posters stuck up in people’s gardens, with a ton of leaflets and other printed material, and with all the associated personal chit-chat. Maybe the truth is that the more local the politics (and Toby’s latest burst of politics was about as local as it is possible for British politics to get), the less relevant blogging is to the campaigning politician. The blogging USP, its ability to send your message whizzing around the entire planet in seconds, does everything but solve your actual problem, and tells everyone in the world all about you except the exact people you are trying to reach, so blogging is of little use to you. Maybe it is time for me to revive that notion I once had about becoming the Supreme Ruler of the World.
Brian, I’m not that surprised that Boris didn’t use the web to troll for votes. In my, (limited), experience, most people use the web for the likes of Facebook, online gaming, online gambling, shopping and downloading naughty pictures. Political blogging is of interest to those few who are interested in politics outside of election time.
I’d be interested to know if Ken used the web to any extent. (But not interested enough to research it.) Perhaps the candidates were worried about falling foul of some obscure Ofcom regulation of the type that got James Whale sacked while the odious Galloway kept his slot.
I saw Guido blog the other day about how he came out in favour of Boris early on, etc, etc. I think Guido(Paul Staine’s) contribution has been to fling lots of very accurate dirt at the current government, and by extension, Livingstone. As a result, Boris benefited from Guido and others in the internet world who have been bashing Labour. To be honest though, I would regard this as marginal; the biggest media player of the lot in this election was the Evening Standard, which conducted a sustained and very effective series of investigative reports about Livingstone and his methods.
Presumably there’s more to blogging than simply winning elections. Like, spreading the ideas, providing a sense of community etc.
But it’s an interesting point about Boris’s Blog. I suspect he made a calculation like: how many people’s minds can I change? Pretty close to zero. Chances of saying something controversial? Pretty close to one. Chances of press picking up controversial statement and losing me tons of votes? Again close to one.
Ergo, don’t blog. Little to gain, everything to lose.