Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Over on ConservativeHome there is a reader's interview with Matt d'Ancona, editor of the Spectator and orchestrator of its brilliant Coffee House blog. In one exchange Matt responds to a question on how bad things are by telling his questioner to cheer up , after all, who are on the intellectual offensive? "Look, for instance, at ConservativeHome and the Right’s spectacular intellectual dominance of the blogosphere".
I know what he means - I say through gritted teeth. Yes, the right dominate the blogosphere.
Take yesterday, the start of the new political season launched by Brown with an all-barrels display: withdrawing from the centre of Basra, positioning himself on the Today programme and the Telegraph, declaring his position unequivocally on the Euro-referendum, developing his "new politics" with cross-party recruits and announcements on citizens juries. What does the left think of all this? You'd expect a mixture: amidst rubbing of hands with glee an urging an immediate election (or not); warnings of betrayal; a pointing to the independent declaration by the Scots on the same day that their Executive is now "The Government" points to the missing national question in the Prime Minister's programme. That's just a start. It's a feast of issues for progressive and democratic politics.
Hello, is anybody out there? The Fabians? They have a conference called 'Democracy Day' this coming Saturday 8 September (The name has an honourable tradition going back the Democracy Day Charter 88 launched the week before the 1992 election). What do they say about Brown's Democracy Monday? Zero. What about Compass, the most audacious of Labour's campaign groups dedicated to renewal - the name of its journal (declaration of interest I am an editorial advisor)? It is climate change and Nina Fishman on the deep future of social democracy that grabs them, along with their campaign to nail Boris. A reshaping of British democracy takes place and... nothing from Compass.
To try and test Matt's claim more thoroughly at around 7pm yesterday I went through all 27 of the "leaf leaning blogs" listed by Iain Dale. There were two registrations of mental life. David Osler of Dave's Part disliked the Brown stab at appealing for consensus and said he does not want to be unified with right wing Tories. At the same time, he adds, if Brown is going to do this, why not - hee, hee - broaden his appeal leftwards to the 20 per cent of the population who share Dave's view? And Peter Kenyon responded to the proposals for citizens juries, like many he was astonished that this participative measure was being launched next week and he wondered who had "got the contract".
Even firing from the hip it was the professionals, especially on the right, who made the running. Benedict Brogan of the Mail quickly blogged,
"consensus, consensus, consensus: why do I have an urge to reach for my Luger? One man's consensus politics is another's Establishment stitch-up (look at state funding for political parties for example). Mr Brown has pre-empted the obvious attack on citizen's juries by saying they will enhance representative democracy rather than replace it. That alone deserves consideration: surely Parliament is where policies and the facts that support them should be examined and tested?"
Brogan hit a note of nervousness on the right about Cameron's own repositioning. Dizzy saw the obvious parallel of Brown's actions with with Sarkozy, using patronage to divide the opposition under the flag of national interest. Edland and miscellanysymposium put Brown's moves together with the Tory pledge not to cut overall spending and feared the re-emergence of Butskillism and identi-kit party politics that does not challenge the welfare state.
I'm not saying all this represents deep thought. But there is a lively responsiveness, an attempt to think about the struggle for power and office and what it means that is lacking on the left, liberal-left, centre-left and far-left in England's blogland.
Of course it is not helped by the media, but why should it be? It should be setting the agenda. On Newsnight Ed Milliband passed the Jeremy Paxman test with ease. But he was not probed on what the government means by participation at all. Rather than the interviewer probing minister on the problem while the minister attempts to reassure that all is in hand, it came across as Jeremy saying nothing had changed, as rudely as he could, while Ed communicated a sense that there might be something amiss in the world outside the studio that needed to be addressed in a new way.
Is the government as new as it claims? At least Peter Facey of Unlock Democracy was able to take issue with what it is doing for a few seconds of Newsnight film. The Brown approach to Citizens Juries, he pointed out, is to select the topics and retain control of the agenda. What if citizens want to discuss issues the government doesn't, such as immigration, the fact that their votes do not count, or even the national question? Citizens juries may be a better - because more deliberative - form of consultation, but will they strengthen our democracy with more democracy, to paraphrase the Prime Minister? Facey's question was not put to Ed. But nor has it been debated by the left on-line.
I've gone on a bit but the question is a huge one. Where is the democratic influence on the government going to come from if there isn't a better range of radical criticism? It is not that the right-wing blogosphre in the UK is super-intelligent. CoffeeShop, for example, failed to respond at all to Alex Salmond's White Paper, one of the best written challenges so far to the Brown way. (But this will start me off on another track). Fact: ConservativeHome, Iain Dale, The Spectator coffees, PoliticalBetting, Guido F, DizzyThinks, where is there an equivalent vitality on the left apart from Pickled Pepper? ( I mean Pickled Politics - thank you Iain! - either way it's hot) Where is there a left news service with a quarter of the energy of OpenEurope?
No, let me alter that. There is a very lively left blogosphere, try to find your way around the Telegraph's website compared to the Guardian and the cascade of comments on CiF. There is the Wintagemot network whose nationalism discomforts the traditional left. Then there is No2ID and Taking Liberties. But there does not seem to be an engagement between these debates and central issues of government and opposition and the fate of the country. What's going on here?
Comments
donpaskini above:
"If I wanted to see what Right-wing blogs were writing about recently, I’d have to click round a number of different blogs - Bloggers4Labour aggregates nearly 300 posts from the last couple of days in one place."
Classic free market (the consumer chooses) v dinosaur monopoly (you can have any colour so long as its red). need one say more?
With all due espect I think you've completely misunderstood the situation Anthony.
The Right may dominate in some spheres (constitutional, parliamentary) but the left is organising on a massive scale globally.
Its rich techie boys with time on their hands.
Guido, Doughty Street and Iain Dale may excite journos, but in the real world they are nothing.
For instance there's no example no right wing equivalent to Indymedia anywhere (thank God).
http://scotland.indymedia.org/
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml
* Witanagemot Club is as right as right can be!
Don:
"To see what left leaning blogs were saying, why use Iain Dale’s 27 links rather than, say, Bloggers4Labour, which has a feed from hundreds of Labour-supporting blogs? Just looking now, there are plenty of links to lots of different reactions from Labour bloggers to Brown’s proposals (as well as lots of other thoughtful stuff)."
I used Iain D as he is pretty fair and the number was manageable. I've taken as good a look as I can through Bloggers4Labour and have not found anything at all about Brown's latest moves. Please give us some links. Demos Greenhouse, nothing; Chicken Yoghurt strong on McCrumb's snobbery towards blogland; BrownLabour, last post 20 July; BrownBlog, closed down altogether; RecessMonkey entertaining but wrong reaction to blond Tory toffs in a car talking policy - he says there is no thought, but they are doing the most difficult thing of all, trying to imagine what it is like to be different from oneself.
Mike, yeah I take your point on the sneering/attacking side of it (people want muck). I like your optimism anyway, hope youre right.
I think the criticism being made of the BBC by Kevin W was that it was Anglocentric, not that it was right wing.
Examples? Plenty.
I think 1820 and Scottish Futures, Scottish Left Review and the Scottish Patient all dissect the Brown agenda from a left / republican stand as I do on Comment is Free:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mike_small/index.html
http://communitypeople.typepad.co.uk/youscotland/
http://www.scottishleftreview.org/
http://kevinwilliamson.blogspot.com/
http://1820.org.uk/
http://scottishfutures.typepad.com/
See also the excellent Osama Saeed:
http://www.osamasaeed.org/
The idea of the right dominating the blogosphere is perpetuated by the Westminster media bubble and those with stale blogrolls.
The Witanagemot Club isn't right or left, it's a club open to anyone - a network of pro-English parliament sites.
That we don't have many left-wing members (we do have a few: Paul Linford, Socialist Unity, Charlie Marks) is more a reflection of left-wing attitudes towards nationalism in England.
The predominance of right-leaning blogs is surely something to do with the fact that the blogosphere has grown up under New Labour. It's much easier to rail against something than it is to support an obviously morally bankrupt regime. The best most vibrant left-wing blogs tend to be violently anti-New Labour.
Mike, my comment on the BBC wasn't made about Kevin W, but to Michael Huntsman and Jim Carr. I thought that would have been clear.
I am of course aware of Comment is Free (takes up rather too much of my time as it is) and as youll see if you take a look, OurKingdom has most of those you mention listed on the blogroll. Many of them decent blogs, but most of them I think coming from a scot nat perspetive. By no means do I claim to have an exhaustive knowledge and Ill take a look at the others you suggest... I suppose part of it depends what we mean when we say dominate anyway. If we're talking number of hits and setting the media agenda I think it's undeniable that the right has more influence...
Guy - am surprised that you found Labourhome orthodox, about half the regulars are enthusiastic supporters of John McDonnell and old skool socialists.
There do seem to be fewer insider-ish Labour blogs than Tory blogs - no Labour equivalent of Iain Dale or Guido. There are a similar number of 'grassroots' blogs, from ordinary members and supporters, for both parties.
Most Labour bloggers I read tend to write more about social policy than constitutional reform, but that reflects my own interests rather than anything deeper.
Michael Huntsman - :) In fact, sites like Bloggers4Labour demonstrate the superiority of collective action and co-operation over the selfish individualism of the Right...
Guy AC - few of the blogs I list come from a Scot Nat perspective. Most instead from a socialist or republican perpsective in favour of self-determination - a subtle differece but a considerable one nevertheless.
My pint about Indymedia as an example of the real left online - is that is connected to a real-world movement. If you look at Doughty Street / Iain Dale / Guido etc althoght they are very popular, how is this popularity connected to any real social or political movement?
It isn't. The fact is Tories have a lot of time on their hands at the moment as nobodys elected them in over a decade.
Also, the Brit-Right mirrors the American experience. It's very easy to get hits as an attack-blog deriding / sneering at everything, but what ultimately this matters I dont know.
Anthony - yes there is a disconnect between Fabians / Compass etc - this is part the atomising power of blogs - they disconnect as well as connect - but also there is very little synergy or radicalism in these groups.
What's to connect?
Oh - here's another example of institutional bias, see Kevin Wiliamson's piece on YouScotland here:
http://communitypeople.typepad.co.uk/youscotland_guest_blog/
Sorry to contradict you Jim Carr...
The left do have one gigantic blog - it's called the BBC.
This gives the left the grossly mistaken impression that they have substantial backing for their dippy ideas.
To see what left leaning blogs were saying, why use Iain Dale's 27 links rather than, say, Bloggers4Labour, which has a feed from hundreds of Labour-supporting blogs? Just looking now, there are plenty of links to lots of different reactions from Labour bloggers to Brown's proposals (as well as lots of other thoughtful stuff).
Gareth, I agree that right wing prominence in the blogosphere has a lot to do with New Labour since as a medium the blog lends itself so well to an abrasive, oppositional form of politics. But this still doesn't answer Anthony's question as to why there is no comparable lively and intelligent critique from the Left - somthing I'd like to see more of.
I'd also suggest that sites like Conservative Home are slightly more independent from the 'party line' than the Labour bloggers. I haven't checked out all those sites you list Don, but the few times I've visited Labour Home I've found it embarassingly orthodox in its views.
Mike, although the indymedia sites are a brilliant resource for grassroots political organisation and action, I still think that the crtique stands since what is needed is a reasoned and judicious assesment of Brown's actual policies from the Left- the constituional reform agenda being a good case in point - any examples?
As for right wing accusations of BBC bias, it doesn't stand. Similar criticism can be made from the Left. It's all a question of one's own viewpoint...remember Rumsfeld et al labelling Al Jazeera insurgent propaganda for daring to film Iraqi casualties?
Jim, The idea that the BBC is left-wing is ridiculous, click through some of the OK coverage of it to see why. I can see Michael's point more, but why should so many on the left want a fixed menu? On the EU Treaty, I'd not be so sure. take a look at John Palmer's reply in OK to OpenEurope, they still have not managed to respond. If - a very big IF - there was a referendum of a principled kind as the long-time editor of the Economist Bill Emmott argues for, also here in OK, I think the best arguments could win and they would not be with the 'no' side. Of course, sentiment might well, probably would, beat the better argument, and this too can be transmitted in blogland.
Anthony
Did you look at bloggers4labour.org/recent_posts.jsp ?
Apart from the ones that you've already cited, I could see posts by martininthemargins, politicalhackuk, unionfutures, stephenbeer, Jon's Union Blog, Grimmer Up North, Bob Piper, Greater Manchester Fabians, John4Leader, Kerron Cross and Mike Gapes. [with apologies for not knowing how to do links, but they can all be found on the recent posts page).
If I wanted to see what Right-wing blogs were writing about recently, I'd have to click round a number of different blogs - Bloggers4Labour aggregates nearly 300 posts from the last couple of days in one place.
Thx, Dan, I'll look later and will put in the links but post this now, Anthony
Your analysis is spot on and is confirmed by your inability to get the name of the blog right, which you reckon is the leader on the left. So familiar is it that you have called it Pickled Pepper rather than Pickled Politics!!
It's actually rather good.
Iain, thank you, I've put in a correction, fully acknowledged! PP is a great site.
Gareth, I agree the Witanagemot network is not left or right, it is radical in the best sense however and many of its members engage with the battle over state power and direction which is at the heart of a country's politics. This, it seems to me, is the missing factor on the left. I also agree, it is the obvious point and thank you for making it, that the domination of the right over the UK's blogland has something to do with New Labour being in power. But is this the whole explanation? What are the "vibrant" left-wing blogs that are violently anti-New Labour and worth reading? One answer is Craig Murray who I should have mentioned. For example, his blogging of the line-in-the-sea which the media (whipped up by Blair) treated as gospel during the Iranian prisoner fiasco was superb coverage. But so far, as the all too slow withdrawal from Basra takes place, he has only written about Arsenal.
Anthony
One reason that the Left lacks a significant vibrant blogosphere is that its views have a capacious outlet in the broadcast media from which the right is routinely excluded. The right knows that it is so excluded and has grasped the internet as its medium to counter the enormous advantage the left's dominance of the BBC and Channel 4 et al. gives Labour.
The point about the growth of blogging having occurred during a period of labour government is valid.
There is also the issue of the extent to which the conventional media follow (particularly during the Campbell years)an agenda set for it by the spinmasters. I suspect that most bloggers do not fall into that trap but are instead more inclined to follow their own noses and to root around in places which are not on the map of the political elite which enables many blogs to remain with a fresh and interesting set of offerings. To change the metaphor, we do 'a la carte' whilst the MSM and the Government does 'fixed menu'. There is very much a sense, I feel, of the right blogosphere not being willing to play the government's game here.
It is also perhaps unsurprising that the 'professionals' tend to be very sniffy about blogs. I suspect they do not like and may fear their loss of monopoly of opinion.
If (and I fervently hope there will be) there is a referendum on the EU Constitution, I believe that will prove to be the coming of age of the political blog and we will see blogging playing a significant role in the campaign. I am prepared to bet that the anti-Treaty side will win the contest hands down. This will be despite the Government and the EU pouring funds and resources into the pro-Treaty campaign. Certainly the next GE will see a significant development of the medium.
* Witanagemot Club is as right as right can be!
A rather sweeping generalisation. The last time I voted it was for the SNP, and they can hardly be described as right-wing.
While we're on the subject of why the right dominates the media - take a look at Gus Abraham's story on the job of Political Editor of the Scotsman ... priceless:
http://1820.org.uk/2007/09/power_in_the_darkness.shtml
That's another tier but yes very good point. That said if I were to be honest I see more likelyhood of engagement and linking within the blogosphere than the traditional lefist organisations.
Maybe we can lead [them] by [our good] example?
Anthony, you don't know how timely this post is.... heh.
Could it be that the left are intellectually defunct? Now that they are in power they are desperate to stay in power? They have got most of the media sewn up with the odd exception. The BBC is always sneering of the right, particularly Naughtie and Montague on the Today programme who cannot conduct an impartial interview with a Tory.
It could be that the left has acknowledged that the deals with Wales and Scotland to give them devolution was made to keep Labour in power but have denied the English their say on democracy and voting reform. There are only a few on the left arguing for the promised review of voting systems to be published. Why would the left want to promote this to give the English a say? As I have said before, we in England are run by a Jockocracy.
Another reason why there are more right wing blogs is that the right wants and scents power. We are more motivated than Labour grassroots activists because we want power.
Most polls taken on ISP homepages usually get a right wing response to questions. It may be that the right is more educated in the ways of the internet thingy?
Don, thanks for this comment,
First we have put in the links to your list of blogs, higher up, only three engage with bits of Brown's NCVO speech, Peter Kenyon, who you have just mentioned, http://petergkenyon.typepad.com/peterkenyon/
martininthemargins and stephenbeer. It's all very weak and kind of predictable. A good blogger must retain the capacity to be surprised.
My views on constitutional reform are there in the OK About Section (called the "good crisis"). A constitution is about the totality of power relations and what they mean. It is great you are interested in process, but why so narrow? isn't voting a process? Is it democratic that even leaving Florida aside, Al Gore got half a million more counted votes than George Bush in 2000 yet still lost? No? But is it democratic, then, that the Tories got more votes than Labour in England but many fewer seats? If we had PR we'd have coalitions and much better government I have no doubt. Just to say "not very interesting" is an example of what I am talking about - it abandons the defining battle over state power. I am not saying this is ALL you should be interested in, I am saying that without this interest the left is lost and at a moment when such power is put into play there should be a much stronger and more interested response, whether for or against Brown's approach.
On the sustainable communities bill, I think this does call for another discussion!
Anthony
"old skool socialists"
What are they still doing in the Labour party then?
"Most Labour bloggers I read tend to write more about social policy than constitutional reform, but that reflects my own interests rather than anything deeper."
I really appreciate this from Dan and want to respond strongly not against Dan at all, but because I think it reveals what may be the heart of the problem.
We know now that HOW social services are delivered, and this effects ALL of us eg when we are ill, effects the efficiency and effectiveness of what they do. In social policy the process is part of the substance, because they are about relationships. Therefore, to be interested in social policy and other traditional lefty things, as Dan is, should also mean being interested in power, who has it and HOW it works and what it delivers. This is what government, the state and the constitution are about. To isolate 'constitutional reform' as if it is a technical or legal specialism is to miss the whole point and allow a more wasteful and unfair UK government to continue unchanged, than would be the case if it was a grown-up democracy. You cannot have good social policy if you have a bad state - and a state that does not know if it is European or not, or if it is a unitary state or not, just to take two aspects, cannot be a good state.
But I suspect that the left, from the centre-left to the far-left, does not want to face up to this. I fear that Dan speaks for most on the left who want to debate outcomes but have fled from engaging with government as a whole. (It is this that OurKingdom tries to talk about - as we say in "Our Good Crisis" at the top of the page. I don't think it is accurate to characterise this as just 'constitutional reform'.)
Mike is right about the Scottish blogs and Gareth is about the Wintaganemot network, whether left or centre or right, because they address a national question (Scotland and England respectively) they are about the system as a whole. So I am talking about England/London, apologies for not making that clearer. But Dan is wrong to see the way right-wing blogs DO address, engage with the system as just being a function of their being insiderish. They may be, but they are also debating a political project for Britain, namely how to make it a more completely right-wing country. Now, and here is the rub: so too is Brown talking about and seeking to implement a project. His is a different project for Britain. This is why he is interesting and important. (Blair wasn't, he was a victim-perpetrator, a spiv who pocketed No 10 and enjoyed the proceeds).
My complaint/concern is that the left in blogland is not responding at Brown's strategic level, whether for or against or even assessing and probing.
Anthony
(I'll get a picture up soon, I promise)
There is a distinct lack of strategy as far as I can see as well as having a vaguely leftist government that seems undermines the left blogosphere.
The Tory blogs are very good at mastering that old Republican move; the echo chamber. One will highlight a story and the others will line up with their own spin on it but keeping the central point clear, if the left did the same they'd raise a bit more traffic have a bigger impact on the conversation.
They need to get out more, whenever we at Pickled Politics take on the Tories at critical times we get a deluge of Tory commenters (and I dare say a few sock puppets to boot), the left should do the same, get into enemy territory and help shape the debate. You never know who's watching and who'll quote you in the msm, plus your name will link back to your blog thus helping traffic.
They should actively play the Google index game to raise their rankings. If they can't write every day instead of closing down they should come together and form group blogs. Consolidate rather than give up! Too many blogs have stopped because they can't post every day, if they clubbed together and attempted one post each a week that would mean daily content.
Many hands make light work as the saying goes...and isn't that collective action the heart of the left?
The last bit I think is the most pertinent, produce good content, be critical of the government and your party of choice and you'll gain credibility for it.
Don't be afraid to upset your friends and be brave, ordinary people will love you for it and it will contribute to the most important point of blogging; raising levels of public engagement with the political system.
Anthony - interesting comments. I would be reluctant to generalise from me to the whole of the left, bloggers like Peter Kenyon or the Labour campaign for electoral reform are extremely interested in all the issues that you mention.
It's a discussion which is probably best carried on separately from this comments thread, but I would be interested in exploring your definition of the issues covered by constitutional reform further.
I work with people who live in poverty to try to give them the opportunity to influence national and local policy-making and services. So I'm extremely interested in how decisions are made, how to redistribute power, how institutions can change the way that they make decisions and allocate resources to reflect the priorities and ideas of people who are currently ignored and marginalised, as well as related questions like how best to combine representative and participatory democracy.
But (and this may be unfair), my experience of the constitutional reform debate is that a lot of it is either about things like voting systems (not very interesting) or involves supporting actively malign proposals like the Sustainable Communities Bill (which would institutionalise a process of raising expectations which cannot be met and transferring power to people who are articulate and have time to go to meetings).
Educated? More vocal perhaps...some of the most tech savvy people I know are on the left...but anyway, moving on from the obvious flame baiting...
You've said it yourself, the right want power and anyone wanting power will move quickly to embrace the tools that will give it to them.
Just as Labour wrong footed the Tories using the media in the run up to 97, the Tories are attempting to return the favour using social media now.
The effective use of social media [by the Tories] at present seems to be to give the Tory grassroots a powerful voice to keep the party lurching to the right and out of power.
Not that I'm complaining of course...
That's a great comment Leon, when did you last see Demos link to ippr, or the Fabians engage with Compass, not blogosphere but it adds to your argument.
Anthony
James Crabtree tells me he got to this argument first with his pathbreaking article in the New Statesman calling on the left to wake up. James, I salute you! And I now remember reading it, so no excuse. But that was then and this is now. In the US it is not the case that the right any longer monopolises their blogland, from Daily Kos, to Huffington Post to Talking Points Memo, there is a left world on the web that engages with central issues of Washington and national power. My point is not that there are no British left-wing blogs that are widely read, but that they do not engage and influence the argument over political power in Westminster.
Anthony
[...] Westminster (unless they are by people in politics) as many do on the right, which explains why Anthony Barnett can’t find them pouring vitriol over the latest government [...]
[...] Westminster (unless they are by people in politics) as many do on the right, which explains why Anthony Barnett can’t find them pouring vitriol over the latest government [...]
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