The Labour Party has appointed the MP Kerry McCarthy as a "Twitter tsar" with responsibility for encouraging candidates to embrace social networking sites before the General Election.Yup, that’ll do it!
The MP for Bristol East, who was recently voted most 'influential' MP on Twitter with 1,879 followers, has been named as new media campaign spokesperson.Well, so far, Labour’s attempts to do so have met with laughable failure and embarrassing shame.
She believes the election next year will be the "first new media election" and MPs must embrace the internet if they are to connect with their constituents.
Can Kerry really do any worse than these two?
In an interview with LabourList website, she said: "Voters will increasingly be searching the web to find out what we think about the issues, what we've actually been doing in the locality and looking to see what we sound like.Yes, problem is, Kerry, that having the voting public ‘looking to see what you sound like’ can be a bit of a problem when you sound like…well, like Gordon:
"That's where YouTube comes in. All our candidates need to start building up that online collateral from now."
Miss McCarthy conceded that Gordon Brown's YouTube video, in which he announced plans to clean up parliament after the expenses scandal, was far from perfect.About as far from perfect as you can get. The only way it could have been worse is if he'd mooned the camera...
Miss McCarthy said: "Let's remember this happened in the middle of a storm about MPs expenses when people were rightly very angry.They could hardly get worse…
"He chose to use video to speak direct to the public, which I think is very powerful.
OK, may be the execution wasn't perfect but politicians need to keep using it and getting better."
Iain Dale is charitable about her efforts so far, but doesn’t think it’ll make a bit of difference to Labour’s chances:
Yes, it can be useful and fun, but to pretend, as she implies, that it is a vital cog in any politician's armoury is stretching it a little.Quite…
Though laughable, anything that mitigates Labours' defeat will reduce the effectiveness of the new Government. Only a massive mandate will enable any rescue of the scorched earth policy of debt and unemployment. Note the clever mass employment in The Public sector. To reduce this non-job army would swell the numbers of unemployed, initially, by a huge amount, yet it has to happen.
ReplyDeleteKerry McCarthy is a mouth-breathing moron. (Moronette?)
ReplyDeleteEither way, short of appointing a horse as Consul, he's not got many shots left in his locker. God, I loathe these people.
"...anything that mitigates Labours' defeat will reduce the effectiveness of the new Government."
ReplyDeleteTrue, but I don't this this will mitigate anything!
"...short of appointing a horse as Consul, he's not got many shots left in his locker."
He's got a lot of horse's arses to go...
If she's a Tsar then you have to wonder whether Lenin had the right idea.
ReplyDeleteOne suspects the uneasy truth about Kerry McCarthy's 1,879 Twitter followers is that a good half of them are Labour MPs or based in Millbank.
ReplyDeleteStill at least that 1,879 listening to Labour's online message. Only 40 million more conquest followers to find eh?
"If she's a Tsar then you have to wonder whether Lenin had the right idea."
ReplyDelete*chuckle*
"One suspects the uneasy truth about Kerry McCarthy's 1,879 Twitter followers is that a good half of them are Labour MPs or based in Millbank."
It's a wonder no journo asked that question...
..."Kerry McCarthy as a "Twitter tsar" with responsibility for encouraging candidates to embrace social networking sites..."
ReplyDeleteI thought that social services, the police, Barnados and other charidees wanted kids off the social networking sites just in case JuicyLucy turned out to be a child molester called Brian.