Thursday 22 January 2009

The spin that wound me up

It is with amusement that an article with the title 'Squeezing the LibDems' catches my eye. It is from the evil people.

I'm not sure of the overall value of such blatant propaganda in the long run as it motivates opponents as much as it motivates supporters, but after reading several initial analyses of Derek Draper's pet project it becomes clear however that this is the point - The Evil People is not there to show their good side and appease the chattering middle classes who populate the media (though this would be a nice by-product all the same); it is a motivational tool to cement the hardcore of working-class and unionist activists back together, because if it works against Labour with opponents like me then it will also work for them with more those more favorably disposed.

On the other side of the coin, if the Labour party are worried about the foundations of their party cracking up completely that they are resorting to such transparent spin (from one of the original spin-meisters), it just goes to show exactly how deep in trouble Brown now is!

It also shows why Labour are in so much trouble and why they will find it impossible to get out of their self-dug hole - does anybody who wants their own prejudices spoon-fed back to them want it done in such a tedious and long-winded way? Is their target audience hungry for factory-farmed produce of this sort?

So off I trot to the 'open' version of the article on The Lesser Evil People to find out.

A simple comparison at this point in time shows that the loyalist site has attracted 6 favorable comments (and they are fully moderated) to the grassroots site's zero. With all the hoo-hah surrounding the launch of these sites this must be a worrying return on the investment made in both platforms - are the critics so alienated by Brown that they can't even be bothered to voice their criticism? Or are they entertaining themselves with speculation on the unimaginable sums of money being spent by celebrities, football clubs and on bank bail-out over at The Sun?

NB. The Didbury West ward in Manchester Withington is described as 'safe' LibDem territory (does any such thing exist?) with a reported result last time out in May 2008 of LibDem 1283; Labour 620; Tories 451. We will see what happens.

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