Stephen Hodgson

Archive for the ‘Technology’ 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.

Earlier this week I wrote about the big role that the Unite union is playing campaigning for Labour in marginal constituencies like Loughborough. Unite is behind the British Airways strikes that started today and the Conservatives have now launched a national campaign highlighting Gordon Brown’s inaction on the BA strikes and Labour’s financial dependence on the Unite union.

Cash-Gordon.com is an Internet campaign to encourage people to spread the word about Unite’s close links with the Labour Party and the role of Unite’s political director Charlie Whelan in both organising the strikes and organising the Labour Party.

The Cash-Gordon.com campaign background is described as follows:

One of the great untold stories of British politics is how Unite has taken advantage of Labour’s near bankruptcy and the departure of Tony Blair to gain an unprecedented grip on the party.

This campaign uses Facebook Connect to empower you to spread the word to your friends. You will earn action points as you go along, so you can track your progress. See the big number above to see how many we have all earned together, and the table below to see your current ranking.

Unite is Britain’s biggest trade union, and is currently the organising highly damaging strikes at British Airways.

Under the political direction of Charlie Whelan, Unite is using its financial and organisation muscle to drive government policy and build a Labour Party very different to the one that appealed to Middle England and won three general elections. Instead, with Gordon Brown as leader, there has been a reversal of much-needed public service reforms, a return to industrial militancy and a regression into atavistic class war rhetoric.

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Strikes and other forms of industrial action are on the increase yet senior Cabinet ministers seem reluctant to act. Unite is preparing to cripple British Airways, but it took several days for any minister to speak out. It was only after Lord Adonis, one of the few remaining Blairites in government, condemned Unite that other ministers, including Gordon Brown, made criticisms of the proposed strike. The fact remains that Labour is still propped up by the strikers’ money.

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The facts about Unite’s increasing domination should be in the public domain. The British people are entitled to know what kind of government they will get if they vote Labour. That’s why we’ve launched this Facebook campaign – so that together we can make sure people know the truth.

This in an innovative and necessary campaign and it’s important that people appreciate the close links between Unite and Labour candidates in marginal constituencies like Loughborough.

The Google Maps UK ‘Street View’ feature was extended yesterday. The feature, which allows users to step into a road and see surround images throughout the road, now covers, according to Google, 95 percent of UK homes. Whilst Nottingham has been on Street View since the UK launch of the service in 2009, Loughborough, Leicester and Leicestershire have only just been added.

View Larger Map

I think it’s a good thing: it makes it easier to find places and it allows visitors and tourists to familiarise themselves with a place. Councillors, such as those on the planning committee, may also find the tool useful for exploring an unfamiliar area of the borough. Some people have privacy concerns but Google’s cameras can only enter public spaces and Google uses automatic face-blurring and car number plate-blurring to protect the privacy of people that have been photographed in the process.

The Telegraph has a few more details.

Loughborough MP Andy Reed has today put a press release on his website saying he “fears” a “dirty tricks campaign” in the Loughborough election. Apparently Mr Reed is upset that he didn’t register the domain name ‘www.andyreed.org.uk’ and that it was instead registered, perfectly legitimately, by a Conservative supporter. The domain name currently doesn’t appear to lead to any website but Mr Reed fears it could one day be part of a “dirty tricks campaign”!

It’s interesting that Andy Reed should talk about “dirty tricks” being played on the Internet because, as avid readers of this blog will recall, Andy Reed supporter and local Labour borough and county councillor Jewel Miah first engaged in Internet dirty tricks back in December 2009. At that time, Jewel Miah was caught editing the Andy Reed Wikipedia article in contravention of Wikipedia’s policies in order to try to cover-up Andy Reed’s voting record and his expenses claims.

Surely now is the time for Andy Reed to publicly condemn the actions of Jewel Miah in vandalising a Wikipedia article and trying to stifle the free availability of information on the Internet. Andy Reed must distance himself from these “dirty tricks” if he is so opposed to them. I trust that Mr Reed will also require assurances from Mr Miah that there will be no further acts of Internet “dirty tricks” by Labour supporters… otherwise where would that leave Mr Reed and his “fears”? Perhaps people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?

The Conservatives iPhone app was launched today. The free ‘Conservative Party General Election App’ provides up-to-date news, policy information across a range of areas, a graphical swingometer and a telephone canvassing tool. The app also integrates with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

It’s good to see the Conservatives experimenting with new information and campaigning tools like this app and I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in politics who wants to see the possibilities for new media campaigning.

The app can be downloaded from the iTunes Stores.

Today saw the launch of the Conservatives draft manifesto on the NHS. As important as the draft manifesto itself, I think, is the way David Cameron is engaging with members of the public via the Conservatives.com website in relation to the draft manifesto. I was delighted to find that by simply going on to the Draft Manifesto section of the Conservatives.com website and signing in with a Google account (you can create an account for free if you don’t have one) it is incredibly easy to submit a question to David Cameron about the NHS and to vote on other people’s questions. The process is driven by a Google product called Google Moderator and it is a good example of how politicians and government can and should use the Internet to quickly and efficiently consult the public, gather feedback and devolve power. David Cameron has said he will answer the top rated questions (as voted for by visitors to Conservatives.com) in a live webcast at 6.30pm this Friday.

Continuing on the subject of Internet technology but this time closer to home, avid readers may have noticed a recent addition to this blog’s sidebar – a “Support Nicky Morgan” box. This feature is driven by the new Conservative online campaigning tool myconservatives.com. Using myconservatives.com anyone can quickly and easily sign up to become part of the campaign to elect Nicky Morgan as the Conservative MP for Loughborough. The myconservatives.com website makes it easy to help get Nicky elected in a number of ways – from simply signing up on the myconservatives.com website to register support, to making telephone canvassing calls from the comfort of your home to help identify Conservative voters in Loughborough to donating money quickly and securely directly to Nicky’s campaign by debit or credit card. The myconservatives.com technology even allows supporters (like me) to embed a donation form in their own website – as seen here. I have also added a link to the Facebook group “Elect Nicky Morgan for Loughborough“.

If you want to see Nicky elected as the next MP for Loughborough and David Cameron in Downing Street after the next General Election please consider lending your support to Nicky’s campaign in Loughborough in whatever way you can – be it joining the Facebook group or donating £5 to the campaign. Just a couple of minutes of your time will make a difference to the campaign in Loughborough and to the future governance of Britain.