It’s been a familiar line, on whose veracity I will not comment, that while the right-of-centre was merrily blogging away, the left-of-centre blogosphere was somewhat flaccid. Part of the reason for this, so the trope goes, was that Labour was in power. The Tories stole a march because they could freely open fire at teh evil ZaNuLab while the left were stuck being subservient toadies or, for a slightly more considered view, because there was not much point sticking it to the Tories and a lot of Labour-aligned people were fed up with the party.
Well, the times they are a-changing. The statements made by Mr Cameron et al are no longer the posturing of an opposition, but the positions of a government in waiting. This gives broadly Labour-aligned blogs something to bite into – ‘our teeth are in the real meat’ – and means the Tories are becoming more self-regarding.
We have Liberal Conspiracy, which is now part of the scenery, but a few other progressive blogs covering the breadth of politics have appeared – Next Left, Left Foot Forward, LabourList – while there is a storm brewing on the Tory-aligned blogosphere regarding Europe.
That last point reflects a debate going on in the parliamentary party (my suspicion is that there is not a similar debate in the voluntary party but I stand ready to be corrected). The Labour-aligned blogosphere isn’t quite there yet, although I suspect some of the running made by blogs on the Tories’ fellow members of the ECR in general and one or two characters in particular will be picked up nationally.
The prophecy was that, once out of power, Labour blogging would really take off. It would appear that it’s starting to do so; whether this is a knell for the Labour government or a tool to keep us in government, I don’t know. It is, however, overdue.
xD.