Opinions from a loyal Labour Party member
Posts tagged Twitter
Answer the question Dave
Apr 16th
I tweeted that Cameron couldn’t answer Brown’s question about money for the police and Cameron didn’t even appear to know what was in his own manifesto (the police are in for it), luckily Gordon did know.
The moment, which was the first ‘punch’ of the debate is already on YouTube (via Political Scrapbook)
Twitter ban by Lord Mayor of Leeds
Feb 24th
Leeds is a dynamic European city with a thriving digital and creative sector, unfortunately it’s not one that the Lord Mayor of Leeds appears to understand.
John Barron, the blogger responsible for the excellent new Guardian Leeds, tweeted “at #leedscouncil meeting no tweets allowed, says lord mayor.”
If this is true then Leeds City Council has joined the list of clueless councils that are damaging democracy by failing to engage with the electorate to the best of their ability.
When I was a Leeds councillor one of my frustrations was how it holds nearly all of its official meetings during ‘normal’ working hours thus depriving the vast majority of the electorate an opportunity to participate. There’s never a perfect time to hold meetings, but during the working day is done for the convenience of officers and councillors, not the public.
Enabling councillors to blog and tweet from official meetings actually makes them far more accessible to voters. If MPs can blog in the House of Commons – and many of them do – then Leeds councillors should be able to as well.
The worst of this is that Leeds can justifiably claim to have been at the forefront of councillors using social media. In 2003 I was the first councillor in the UK to blog (as covered by The Guardian at the time.) In July 2003 I even blogged live from the council chamber, which who knows but might even have been a world first.
It’s disgraceful that in February 2010 the Lord Mayor has chosen to take Leeds back into the past.
I’m inviting Councillor Judith Elliot of the Morley Borough Independents to use the comments to explain why she wants to deny the citizens of Leeds the right to hear direct from their elected representatives. I’m waiting Judith.
Yorkshire Labour Party members on Twitter
Feb 7th
After this afternoon’s excellent Go Fourth Leeds Tweet Up I’ve pulled together a quick public list on Twitter of Yorkshire Labour Party members. It has only got 33 people on it at the moment, so apologies if I’ve missed you off. To get added just tweet to @stuartbruce or leave a comment on this blog.
You can follow the list here and thanks to @johnprescott for organising it all.
Official Conservative policy – Tory candidates not to be trusted
Feb 6th
It’s official you can’t trust Tory party candidates. The Conservative Party has so little faith in its own Parliamentary candidates that it’s had to issue official advice to candidates to check before they say anything about policy. Tory wanna-be MPs can’t Twitter, blog or use Facebook to talk about policy without checking first.
When I read and tweeted about the Daily Mail Fail story this morning I didn’t quite believe it. But confirmation came shortly later when Tory staffer Craig Elder tweeted “PPCs are free (and encouraged) to tweet what they like. But they should double-check if commenting about national policy.”
This ‘rebuttal’ is even more alarming than the original Daily Mail story. It effectively confirms that Tory candidates can’t be trusted to know something as simple as their own party’s policy! Now I know Dave and Boy George keep having gaffes and making it up on the hoof, but you’d have thought that Tory candidates would be bright enough to keep up on their own without spoon feeding from Central Office. Or maybe it’s just that the real views of Tory candidates are so much to the raving right that Dave is worried that voters might find out what they’re really like before the the election and scupper his chances for power.
You don’t need to look far to see some of the most extreme raving right nonsense to emanate from Dave’s acolytes:
This is going to be the most unpopular blog I’ve ever written, but here goes. MPs should set their own salaries. They should be free – encouraged, even – to take on additional jobs. And the fuss about how much they can spend on their kitchens is silly and demeaning.”
Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph blog, 16 May 2008
You just need contrast the Tory’s ‘Command and Control’ model with Labour’s approach of genuine engagement with voters to see that Cameron’s cuddly Conservatives are all spin and no substance.
Stuart Bruce at 17 in the top 100 political bloggers in the UK list
Jan 12th
Just spotted this list of the top 100 political blogging tweeters in the UK. I make it into the top 20 at 17, just behind the Evening Standard’s Paul Waugh, ConservativeHome’s Tom Montgomerie and Labour MP Tom Harris.
The full top 20 is:
1) Alastair Campbell (12,270 followers)
2) John Prescott (10,717 followers)
3) Iain Dale (6,993 followers)
4) Tom Watson MP (6,977 followers)
5) Guido Fawkes (6,300 followers)
6) The Wardman Wire (5,698 followers)
7) Kerry McCarthy (4,451 followers)
UK Progressive (4,399 followers)
9) James Cleverly (3,600 followers)
10) Enemies of Reason (3,412 followers)
11) Cllr Phil Briscoe (3,342 followers)
12) Green Girls Global (3,101 followers)
13) Labour List (2,991 followers)
14) Paul Waugh (2,972 followers)
15) Tim Montgomerie (2,968 followers)
16) Tom Harris MP (2,637 followers)
17) Stuart Bruce (2,628 followers)
18) Gideon Rachman (2,240 followers)
19) Obnoxio the Clown (2,147 followers)
20) Lynne Featherstone MP (2,058 followers)
