Where the MSM and the Blogosphere Become One

I have never been someone who believes the blogosphere and the mainstream media should be at each other's throats. I suppose I would say that, wouldn't I, seeing as I earn my living from various MSM outlets nowadays. There's an increasing overlap, whereby bloggers are now writing for and appearing on the MSN with increaed regularity and mainstream jourbalists are now blogging. It's very interesting to read Guido's post today on the subject of the number of people who visit various websites. Guido is more of a confrontationalist on this than me, as you will see in his post HERE.

I must say I do find it incredible that one man bands like him and me seem to be getting higher or equivalent numbers of readers (based on absolute unique visitors) than big MSM companies like ITN or the main political parties. Guido got 102,000 last month and I got 72,000. According to ComScore this is what other sites achieved during February...

• BBC News UK Politics 1,090,000
• itn.co.uk 96,000
• theyworkforyou.com 69,000
• Guardian Politics 67,000 (excl CiF)
• barackobama.com 56,000
• conservatives.com 40,000
• bnp.org.uk 37,000
• democraticunderground.com 32,000
• labour.org.uk 29,000

Obvously those figures may have increased since February, but the trend is clear. Now all we need to do is generate direct income so we can market our blogs better.

Another Labour MP Supports a Low Tax Agenda

This low tax agenda is catching on. Further to Denis MacShane’s remarkable article in the Telegraph last week, there was a BBC World Service discussion on Politics UK between Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers' Alliance and Gisela Stuart at the end of last week (aired over the weekend) in which she effectively says Government does too much, centralised control is ineffective and wasteful and that powers should be returned to the individual. It’s an encouraging follow up to the MacShane piece, and a sign that some in the Labour party are moving pretty fundamentally - either out of principle or electoral necessity.

Listen to it HERE. (11 minutes 40 seconds in)

This Bishop Deserves to be Bashed

Oh, whatever next. If you are a climate change "denier", you might as well be having sex with your daughter and imprisoning her. Those are the considered thoughts of the Bishop of Stafford. Or is he a Bishopric?

Yasmin: The Right Has Crushed the Left

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown reckons the left is dead as a political force and thinks she will be "pushing up the daisies" before it reasserts itself again.

The sun now rises on the right and those of us on the other side are left despondent as we anticipate a prolonged winter of discontent. We, who believe in fairness, equality, human rights and universal justice, are of no consequence. The fever of failure consumes our hopes and there is no relief as we witness the collapse of the British Left and the ideals that defined post-war advancement in this country, turning an obstinately class-riven, imperial nation into a model of progressive politics.

Local election results show the country lurching right, in some parts even embracing the BNP. Instead of condemning the scum, Britons are instructed to "understand" why these voters are "driven" to vote for neo-Nazis. We are simultaneously warned to show no such understanding of young Muslims who are seduced by hate-filled Imams. White resentment of "foreigners" is no more respectable than Muslim hatred of Westerners. Yet in our unequal world it is.

So Yasmin wants us to understand less and condemn more - only when it comes to the BNP of course. Do you spot an inconsistency there? She is also very wrong in her analysis of the local election results. The local election results do not show a lurch to the right, they show a lurch to the Conservatives away from Labour. That does not constitute a lurch to the right. But Yasmin surpasses herself in this next extract...

Almost more depressing is the sight of black and Asian Britons following the wind blowing the Tories to victory. Boris has recruited Afro Caribbean "leaders" who believe in physical chastisement and smart young Asians who deny the existence of racism and want an end to political correctness. The more old-fashioned Uncle Toms and their female equivalents are now expediently making themselves known to the Tories and right-wing think tanks.

The use of the phrase 'Uncle Tom' is astonishing. We all know what it means, and that's what she is calling the likes of Shaun Bailey, Kulveer Ranger, Shailesh Vara, Ray Lewis and many more. What a terrible thing to say. But it gets worse.

For reasons I have yet to fathom, two weeks ago, I was invited to address a meeting at the House of Lords organised by the Conservative Muslim Forum. The room was full and the discussion on Muslim women lively. Many there were previously New Labour acolytes; others were young and ambitious and now devoted to the charismatic Cameron. To see such enthusiasm for a party whose members have always opposed our presence on these shores was a wake-up slap. All over now. The right has crushed the left.

I could hardly believe what I was reading. Which party was it that welcomed Ugandan Asians into this country in the early 1970s? Yes, of course, there was a small element of the Conservative Party which opposed any immigration at all - just as there was in the Labour Party (witness the London dockers' marches in support of Enoch Powell).

You can read the full article HERE. I know Yasmin provokes a lot of you, but please keep your language temperate if you are going to comment.

Shadow Cabinet Media Tarts: May

Each month Julian Nicholson and I compile a list of the best media performers in the Shadow Cabinet using mentions on Lexis Nexis as the index.

May
1	-	David Cameron	2742
2	-	George Osborne	318
3	-	David Davis	248
4	-	William Hague	161
5	10	Andrew Lansley	133
6	8	Chris Grayling	125
7	4	Eric Pickles	111
8	-	Michael Gove	80
9	-3	Alan Duncan	73
10	-	Nick Herbert	64
11	-2	Liam Fox	63
12	1	Philip Hammond	51
13	3	Grant Shapps	48
14	9	Andrew Mitchell	43
15	5	Francis Maude	42
16	6	David Mundell	40
17	1	Theresa May	35
18	5	Cheryl Gillan	33
19	-2	Caroline Spelman	27
20	8	Oliver Letwin	26
21=	-9	Theresa Villiers	22
21=	-	Jeremy Hunt	22
23	-4	David Willetts	18
24	-17	Peter Ainsworth	15
25	-20	Owen Paterson	10
26	-	Patrick McLoughlin	9
27	1	David Lidington	4
28=	-5	Sayeeda Warsi	3
28=	-	Lord Strathclyde	3
30	-3	Dame Pauline Neville-Jones	2
31	-	Baroness Anelay of St Johns	1
Liberal Democrats
-		Nick Clegg 455

* The reason for Owen Paterson's high placing last month was due to the fact that a new blockbuster film was released, and the director was called Owen Paterson!

Brown's Bunker Tactics On 42 Days

Tomorrow is Parliament sits for the first time since the Crewe & Nantwich by election. During the afternoon Edward Timpson will take his seat. Later on in the day the Parliamentary Labour Party meets. Instead of facing the music himself, Gordon Brown is sending Jacqui Smith along to take the flak over 42 days.

He really is a man of courage, isn't he?

He will take cover behind an article he is writing for one of the broadsheets tomorrow. Having compehensively lost the argument on 42 days he should be coming out fighting. His only chance of victory is to take on his critics in the PLP now. If he leaves it until after the vote it may be too late. Staying in his bunker won't achieve anything.

May Statporn

Click on image to enlarge

May was by far and away the best month for traffic on the blog since I started it. Absoute Uniques were 18% up on April, which in turn had been the previous best. Readership is 60% up, year on year. By this time next year I'm aiming for 100,000 unique readers each month.

Absolute Unique Visitors
May 2008 71,877 - May 2007 45,000 - April 2008 61,008

Visits
May 2008 375,755 - May 2007 200,291 - April 2008 - 272,169

Page Loads
April 2008 588,715 May 2007 280,134 - April 2008 414,848

Here are my top 20 linking sites (ie incoming hits) for May, according to Google Analytics.

1. - Guido Fawkes 28,999 (16,510)
2. - ConservativeHome 28,536 (14,191)
3. +1 Spectator Coffee House 13,189 (6,257)
4. -1 PoliticalBetting 11,870 (6,700)
5. +2 Politics Home 10,033 (3,165)
6. - Daniel Finkelstein & Red Box 6,627 (3,757)
7. -2 Dizzy Thinks 5,028 (4,576)
8. - NHS Blog Doctor 2,906 (1,912)
9. +1 Boulton & Co 2,058 (1,512)
10. +5 Biased BBC 1,496 (754)
11. -2 Ben Brogan 1,406 (1,529)
12. - Telegraph Blogs 1,245 (1,112)
13. NEW UK Polling Report 1,023 (N)
14. Re-entry Daily Referendum 954 (Re)
15. NEW Bob Piper 857 (NEW)
16. Re-entry Chris Paul 818 (Re)
17. -4 Devil's Kitchen 737 (1,103)
18. -1 Archbishop Cranmer 722 (669)
19. -3 Burning our Money 670 (732)
20. -9 Bloggerheads 654 (1,314)

Dropping out are LabourHome, Little Man in a Toque, Tim Worstall,Recess Monkey

Source: All figures are from Google Analytics including those from previous months. These figures replace those I had previously used until a few months ago which came from Extreme Tracking.com, who do not count Absolute Uniques.

Jack Straw - A Modern Day R A Butler?

On Andrew Marr this morning, Jack Straw came out with this...

Gordon Brown is the best Prime Minister we could possibly have

It reminded me of the occasion when R A Butler was quizzed by a journalist about his view of Anthony Eden. He was asked: Is Eden the best Prime Minister we've got? Butler simply answered 'yes'. It said so little, yet so much.

Is it Time For Ken Clarke to Make His Choice?

The News of the World reports that if the Conservatives win the election David Cameron will bring Ken Clarke into the Cabinet in charge of the Cabinet Office. The argument in favour of this centres around he need for a few greybeards around the Cabinet table, and there are few with more Cabinet experience than Ken Clarke. The arguments against are simpler and more numerous.

1. Would he sign up to Cameron's European policy?
2. Is he really in touch with the zeitgeist?
3. Can he really be a team player?

However, there is another issue. Who exactly would make place for him? Imagine you've been a diligent member of the Shadow Cabinet for three or four years. You've worked your knackers off, for little thanks. You haven't been raking in a six figure salary from outside interests and you've sacrificed a lot for the wider good of getting the Conservatives elected. You're then told, sorry mate, there isn't room for you at the top table. Your place is going to a 69 year old with a history of 'being difficult'. You'd be pretty hacked off.

There are indeed arguments for people like Ken Clarke being brought in, but if they are, they need to work their passage. I suggest that if this move is serious, David Cameron should bring Ken Clarke into the Shadow Cabinet at the next reshuffle. He can then, like the rest of them, demonstrate his commitment and talent in advance of the election. If his outside interests prevent him from doing so, that tells us what we need to know.

UPDATE 12.20pm: Some of the comments in this thread demonstrate that people only read the first half of this post. I am quite happy for Ken Clarke to be in a David Cameron Cabinet (as long as he is not Minister for Europe!) but only if he has previously agreed to serve in the Shadow Cabinet. I think that's an entirely reasonable view to take.

Mum, I'm On t'Telly

I'll be doing the papers on the BBC News Channel (as we must now call it) tonight at 11.45, and on GMTV tomorrow morning (sometime between 6 and 7.25 - repeated on ITV 2 a bit later) with Steve Richards discussing the woes of the government with Alex Hilton. Alex is, how shall I put it, a tad controversial regarding Mr Brown's future, to the extent that I am now worried about Alex Hilton's future.

Ban Smoking or Leave Smokers Alone

I hate cigarettes. I loathe smoking. But if smoking is legal, then surely the consumer has the right to choose the brand of cigarette he or she wishes to smoke, and the cigarette companies have the right to design the packets in any way they want to, as long as they include the government health warning.

The proposal to ban any form of branding of cigarette packaging is a ridiculous overreaction by cowardly nanny staters. They also want to ban the public display of packets of cigarettes and for them to be sold from under the counter on the basis of what the eye doesn't see...

The real agenda of the people behind these authoritarian proposals is to ban smoking outright. At least that would be an intellectually honest position. As it is, the constant chipping away of the rights of smokers is typical of the authoritarian drift among so-called health professionals.

Either ban it outright or leave people to make their own decisions.

Pssst... Can You (or I) Keep a Total Secret?

Is it possible to keep a secret in politics? We all know that politicians and media people are terrible at keeping things to themselves (I am no exception) and that the collective catchphrase for the Westminster Village should be: "Not that I'm one to gossip, but...". The concept of keeping something to yourself is almost alien to the political being. Politicos are very sharing people, at least when it comes to gossip.

On Thursday two of my colleagues interviewed the Prime Minister in Number Ten for the launch issue of TOTAL POLITICS. As you can imagine, we were delighted to get the interview as it gets the magazine off to a flying start. Imagine my surprise then, to read this in the THREE LINE WHIP column of the Daily Telegraph this morning!

Total Politics, the new magazine brainchild of Tory blogger Iain Dale, has landed a Gordon Brown interview for its first edition, out at the end of June. Brown reveals that he is not a good dancer, he would rather watch the new Indiana Jones film than the upcoming Bond film Quantum of Solace, that his favourite programme from his youth was That Was The Week That Was, and the last film that made him cry was Hotel Rwanda.

Now, don't run away with the impression that this interview was full of personal interest pap - these were a few throwaway questions at the end. Anyway, we now have three choices. Do we...

a) launch a Yes Minister style leak inquiry?
b) think of a unique form of torture to make Jonathan Isaby reveal his source?
c) accept the suggestion you are about to make in the comments?

Now, I suppose you're all gagging to know what was in the rest of the interview? Well, I'd love to tell you, but I'd have to kill you. All will be revealed on June 23rd. See, I can keep a secret, after all.

Talking Politics

I forgot to alert you to this morning's edition of Radio 4's TALKING POLITICS (the last ever edition) in which the subject of voter disengagement was discussed. I love this sort of programme as it's rare that you ever get a twenty minute discussion on anything on the radio. Sheena McDonald interviewed Tony Benn and then there was a discussion between Anne McElvoy, Liam Fogarty and myself about why people feel so disconnected from Westminster politics.

Listen to it HERE and let me know what you thought of the points which were raised.

That's Rich of Geoff Hoon

When discussing MPs pay and expenses last night Geoff Hoon said on Question Time: “I am not rich…", which is interesting seeing as he earns more than £135,000 a year and was a barrister before entering Parliament. I have no problem with that at all, but to suggest that he wears a hairshirt, or ever did, is stretching it a bit.

This does beg a question: when do you become rich? Is it when your net assets are worth above a certain amount, or do people judge 'richness' on annual income?

Or have we reached a point where the concepts of richness and poverty have all become relative - a bit like left and right? Discuss.

Steve McCabe: Is He Serious?

Steve McCabe MP was Labour's campaig manager in Crewe & Nantwich. In an article in this week's Tribune, reported by The Guardian, he says this:

"There never was a toff strategy. There was an early caricature designed to help us emphasise the difference between the leading protagonists." The plan might have succeeded but for "some useful Tory spin and cowardly criticism from within Labour's own ranks", he added. He denied the tactic was a dress rehearsal for a general election campaign. "The Prime Minister was not involved in devising or sanctioning any aspect of the campaign and those who gossiped never once spoke to me.

Is he for real? The toff line was used in every campaign leaflet, and I learned today that one of the two guys who followed David Cameron around wearing top hats works ... wait for it ... in the Number Ten Downing Street political office!

Vote in the May Political Performance Index

Each month I invite you to take part in compiling the Political Performance Index, which gives you the chance to rate how the top 50 politicians in the country performed over the last month.
Please don't just automatically give high marks to the politicians from the party you support - try to be as dispassionate as possible. Obviously I don't pretend that the readership of this blog is representative of the country as a whole - 55% of you vote Tory, after all! So if you are from another party and have a blog, please do link to this survey and encourage your readers to take part. I'd like to get at least 2,000 people taking part each month. You should give marks from 1 to 10 (1 being the worst) for how you rate each politician's performance during the month of May.

VOTE HERE

REMINDER: BBC Parliament Relives 1983 Election Night

If you're a Labour supporter, look away now. This morning at 9am BBC Parliament starts transmitting more than 11 hours of coverage of the 1983 election night.

David Dimbleby hosted the programme with results analysis by Peter Snow and Tony King, commentary from the BBC's Political Editor, John Cole, and interviews by Robin Day.

Live coverage of declarations and reaction to the results comes from across the country, including reports from Nicholas Witchell in Margaret Thatcher's Finchley constituency, Brian Hanrahan in Michael Foot's constituency of Blaenau Gwent, Kate Adie in David Owen's Plymouth Devonport constituency, Michael Cole with David Steel in Ettrick Bridge, Valerie Singleton in Torbay, Selina Scott in Guildford and Esther Rantzen with the crowds gathered at Downing Street.

In addition, Washington correspondent Martin Bell reports on the reaction to the UK election in the US, and the view from Moscow comes from Soviet press agency spokesman Gennady Gerasimov.

Cameron Gets Another Poll Boost

The Daily Telegraph has a YouGov poll tomorrow, with the Conservatives on 47%, Labour on 23% and the LibDems on 18%. Compared to last month's poll, the Tories are up three and Labour is down three. It's the highest ever Conservative showing in a YouGov poll and Labour's worst poll since, well, ever - ever since polling began.

Standpoint Gets Off to a Great Start

Last night I went to the magnificent launch of STANDPOINT magazine at the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square. It was a superb venue for a launch and did them proud. The magazine itself is beautifully produced, with a huge amount of content. It's certainly not a magazine you could read on the loo! I make no pretence of being an intellectual and in some ways a lot of the articles go completely over my head, and in that sense it is very much the right of centre equivalent of PROSPECT - and a long overdue one. Even many on the left accept that the right is where the intellectual action is at the moment, and I suspect the magazine will get quite a lot of subscribers from surprising quarters.

Interestingly, several people I spoke to last night asked me how TOTAL POLITICS will be different from STANDPOINT. Well, there are only 25 more days until you can find out. We go on sale on 23 June.

How to Get on in the World of Quangocracy

So Adair Turner is to be the new head of the Financial Services Authority. He is the man who was tasked with chairing a commission on the future of the pensions industry, you may recall. Gordon Brown then proceeded to ignore virtually all his conclusions and recommendations. And did the noble Lord utter any complaint? He did not. He's now got his reward with a further five year sinecure. That's how you get on in the world of quangocracy.

This comes hot on the heels of Chris Smith's appointment as head of the all powerful Environment Agency. I would love to know his qualifications for this post as I don't recall him being especially interested in or knowledgeable about environmental issues when he was MP for Islington. The only environmental issues there are how long their sun dried tomatoes and polenta take to prepare. Joke.