Has the Miliband blog lost its way?
The novelty has now worn off, or rather boredom has set in. As a result, Miliband seems to have lost his readership, some posts are attracting no comments at all, his recent ones have not reached double figures; why even I can attract a larger response.
Interestingly, there is no mention on his blog about Defra’s latest report on avian flu which Defra is said to be distancing itself from; this report certainly angered local farmers. The bird flu outbreak attracted sensational headlines in our press, surely Miliband would want to converse with farmers about this. This is what has been said about it:
The Government last night distanced itself from a statement by Defra linking the spread of the bird flu outbreak to farmers feeding dead chickens to foxes – after an outraged response from Norfolk’s farming community. The final report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs into the spring outbreak of H7N3 strain at three farms in North Tuddenham, near Dereham, blames foxes for spreading the disease and says poultry farmers should stop feeding carcasses to foxes. Its report states:
“The results of this investigation, together with those from a recent survey of poultry keepers, indicate that bio-security measures should include preventing the predation of dead birds by free-living species such as foxes and advocate not practising the deliberate feeding of foxes with poultry carcasses.”
After hearing of the report’s conclusions, Stuart Agnew, a leading Norfolk farmer and former county representative on the National Farmer’s Union, condemn-ed the suggestion that farmers would intentionally feed foxes as “stupidâ€? and said it was impossible for farmers to do more to stop dead birds being taken by predators. A Defra spokesman later denied it was linking farmers feeding foxes with the spread of the disease in Norfolk but rather reinforcing good bio-security advice.
I find it unbelievable that Miliband has not written about this on his weblog, described by him as “helping bridge the gap – the growing and potentially dangerous gap – between politicians and the public”.
His blog should be pulsating and innovative, instead he has constantly ignored critics who regard it as nothing other than a ministerial post. It is as much fun and use as a limp, soggy welly. That’s why discerning people like Antony Mayfield are deleting Miliband’s feed as it is “too boring”. He is not alone.
And Simon Collister poses the question on eDemocracy about whether the Miliband blog is simply a “pilot”, nothing more. There should have been an evaluation of it in June, but Simon’s attempts to find out more have drawn a blank.
Despite its apparent failings, and the controvery over its funding, Miliband’s blog has been shortlisted for the New Statesman New Media Awards where I predict he will win on the grounds that he is simply a Minister. Interestingly, no other Ministers have said they would like to follow in his footsteps, unless you know differently ……
He’s be shortlisted – yet a certain Guido and Mr Dale weren’t. Hmmmm!!!
Methinks Mr Miliband might currently be rather preocccupied with thoughts about his next government job.
Paul, are you thinking what I’m thinking? Only if Miliband wants to step into Prezza’s shoes, I have been led to believe that history to date dictates that this this rule out his chances of THE big one.
Opps there goes your sidebar, I think it’s that big pic with all the flags on it that did it!
Make it a bit smaller and reinsert and that should do it.
and what a bargain it’s been!
I’m developing a blog for a politician, fully customised code and all that, and he’s getting it as a gift. Even if I charged for it, it wouldn’t come to 40K, though.
Tim is that Michael Wills MP by any chance? I came across your CV on your site, very impressive, I’m sure Miliband would love to have you on board. You have some amazing IT skills.
I have a new web under construction at the moment, it will be in WordPress, what do you think? I’m having difficulty downloading the pics in the same easy way that blogger.com allows you to. I hope to be up and running in a couple of weeks, after my tekkie friend returns from St Tropez. It is his birthday present to me, though I will have a different domain.
Ellee,
I think (as I’m sure you do!) that a ministerial blog is a great step forward in politics and democracy.
I think your comments are right that what started out as an exciting activity (I’m sure not all the posts were one way or boring back in the day) has become dull.
But is this because of Dave’s inability to grasp the benefits of blogging (he certainly sounds enthused in his ‘About me’ section) or is the blog becoming a victim of the Yes, minister-esque Humpheries who are slowly strangling its flexibility and usefulness as a political tool.
One thing I definately agree on… the blogging awards. Like pretty much all industry awards they are not necessarily based on merit… just power, money or influence!!
Ellee,
It’s for Robert Buckland, Conservative PPC for South Swindon. We did a quick blog for the last General Election at http://www.swindonforbuckland.com, but we’re working on a new one. I switched sides some time ago.
We’re using WordPress too. It’s about the right tool for self-blogging. Things like Drupal are better for communities, I think, and I feel that TextPattern is better for things that are more site than blog.
Being open source software, it means that there’s quite a lot of extensions for it, including various options for image gallery management. It’s an area that I’m researching myself.