Stephen Hodgson

Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

Yesterday saw the launch of Loughborough Conservative candidate Nicky Morgan’s new website NickyMorgan.com. Nicky’s website will be updated over the course of the election campaign with news, campaign updates and video reports.

In other Internet-related news, popular political news blog PoliticalBetting.com has announced a list of standardised hashtags for Twitters users to use during the election to identify tweets relating to particular constituencies. The Twitter tag for the Loughborough constituency is #Loughb. The General Election 2010 tag is #GE2010.

Following the launch of the Conservatives iPhone app, I’ve made some changes to this blog that mean it’s now much easier to read on the iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and Android devices. Users of these mobile devices should notice the changes straight away.

Dave Faulks, a blogger from Loughborough who writes at Faulks Talks, has published a message he says he received from Loughborough MP Andy Reed. Dave, who describes himself as an ideological socialist,  contacted Andy Reed to express his concern about the direction in which the Labour Party has moved. Mr Reed’s incredible response comes across as aggressive and threatening:

Whilst it is fine to live in a puritanical ideological bubble – I don’t think it is sustainable.

In Loughborough if you don’t vote for me you get a right wing Tory MP – simple as that.

I clearly won’t change your mind on your poltics so I won’t waste anytime doing so. But enjoy having a Tory MP and government more right wing than Thatcher

Andy

This is the writing of an MP who feels cornered and who has clearly lost respect for the people who elected him.

Jedward are out of X-Factor, giving the Conservative Party the perfect opportunity to respond to last week’s Labour poster campaign with this:

Jedward are gone but we're still left with... Deadwood: Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling as Jedward

In a bizarre public admission, Loughborough MP Andy Reed has described himself as a “catastrophic MP”.

Either I’m missing something or it’s simply the amusing result of not proof-reading before posting.

Update (01/11/09): The reference to Reed as a “catastrophic MP” has now been removed from his website.

Mike Rouse has pointed out that one of his MPs in Coventry, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth, has refused to reveal the contents of his “Legg letter” – the letter which was sent to all MPs by Sir Thomas Legg this week either giving their expenses the all-clear or requesting further information or a repayment.

Bob Ainsworth isn’t the only MP who doesn’t want to reveal his Legg letter. On Wednesday the Leicester Mercury ran a story about the contents of local MPs’ Legg letters but, along with Leicester East MP Keith Vaz, Loughborough MP Andy Reed wouldn’t tell the Mercury whether Sir Thomas has asked him to repay any money.

On Thursday I challenged Andy Reed, via Twitter, to publish his Legg letter. Mr Reed’s very telling response to my request was to not only ignore it but to also “block” me from following him on Twitter! I see two problems with Mr Reed’s response: (i) it betrays a misunderstanding of Twitter as a medium, which should be used for two-way communication (not simply broadcasting) and (ii) it is pointless because the andyreedmp Twitter feed is a public feed – so I can still read it anyway!

Yesterday I voted in the Total Politics Blog Poll 2009. The blogs I voted for as my top 10 (in alphabetical order, not rank order) are:

Blaney’s Blarney
Conservative Home
Dizzy Thinks
Guido Fawkes
Iain Dale’s Diary
Paul Waugh
Political Betting
Samizdata
The Young Conservative
Tory Bear

There are only two days left to vote for your own top 10. See the Total Politics Blog Poll 2009 website for details on how to vote by e-mail.