Tories attack Gordon Brown for being a digital politician in a digital age

By Jonathan Walker on Mar 26, 09 04:42 PM in Politics

David Cameron once accused Gordon Brown of being "an analogue politician in a digital age".

And the Tories have certainly embraced all this interweb stuff, with numerous Twitter accounts and a dedicated "webcameron" video page, detailing the Tory leader's adventures across the country.

So I was a little surprised to receive a press release from them - attacking Gordon Brown for doing the same thing.

Apparently, the Government is wasting money using "gimmicks" such as Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube to communicate with the public.

Black Country MP Tom Watson (Lab West Bromwich East) and Birmingham MP Liam Byrne (Lab Hodge Hill) are the people behind the Government's online communications strategy.

Of course, the Conservatives are spending their own money while Downing Street's website and YouTube activities are funded by taxpayers (and they are supposed to tell us what the Government is doing, not to be used for political propaganda).

So it's not quite the same. But are the Tories telling us they'll end Number 10's interweb activities if they win office?

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4 Comments

Simon Dickson said:

Can't find any trace of this press release on the Conservatives.com website. Ah well, glad to see they're practising what they preach... I think.

(In all seriousness, I'd love to see the exact text. Any chance of posting it in full, or emailing it to me?)

March 26, 2009 5:15 PM

Mike Flower said:

Slightly missed the point of the press release there! It was entitled: "Brown retreats to his bunker & switches off his email address"

Brown had closed down his Downing Street email address letting the public to contact him only by post or fax. Link here: http://www.number10.gov.uk/footer/contact-us

As you'll see he's turned it off so the point is that he is less acessible to the public - which can't be good for a PM that claims to be listening!

March 26, 2009 9:46 PM

Jonathan Walker said:

The part that caught my eye was this:

"Taxpayers’ money spent on digital gimmicks: At the end of last year, the Downing Street website was supposedly 'upgraded to provide multiple new opportunities for enhanced communication with the public'.

"The website now costs £527,000 a year to run. It features the latest web technologies like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. The Government has even set its own virtual fantasy world on ‘Second Life’, costing £12,000 a year to run, with set up costs of £20,000.

"The Cabinet Office is also recruiting a £160,000 a year 'Twittercrat'(officially, a new 'Director of Digital Engagement')."

Downing Street claims the "e-mail" contact (it was never an e-mail contact, just a web form) is only down temporarily and "we aim to have it up and running as soon as possible". That seemed less interesting to me, but it is of course just a personal judgment!

Simon, I don't have access to your e-mail even though you probably entered it when you commented, but drop me a note at jon_walker@mrn.co.uk and I'll happily send it to you (it's 1700 words in total so I won't post it all here).

March 27, 2009 3:12 PM

Mike Flower said:

I don't think it's unreasonable with that amount of tax payers money invested to expect an email the Prime Minister form to be working.

March 27, 2009 4:49 PM