European Political News

I have posted the third in my series of articles about starting a Political Blog over at Poliblog Perspective.

My first article, Starting a Political Blog I: Blogging is like Traditional Campaigning , introduced a parallel between political blogging and traditional political campaigning.

The second article, “Starting a Political Blog II: How to Get the Basics Right “, highlighted the extreme transparency that exists when you write a blog, and the need to engage with your potential audience in a long-term strategy.

This post looks at some of the basic principles to follow in order to write a credible political blog.

Principles to Apply

Be transparent

One major difference between blogs and newspapers is that blogs are usually more transparent. Newspapers often do not declare gifts and travel expenses paid; good bloggers do. Many blogs have their own voluntary “register of interests”.

If you write about something, but do not declare a personal or financial interest, you will (rightly) be treated quite roughly when you are found out - especially if you are a public figure.

Read the full article at Poliblog Perspective.

This is the fourth in my series of articles about starting a Political Blog.

My first article, Starting a Political Blog I: Blogging is like Traditional Campaigning , introduced a parallel between political blogging and traditional political campaigning.

The second article, “Starting a Political Blog II: How to Get the Basics Right “, highlighted the extreme transparency that exists when you write a blog, and the need to engage with your potential audience in a long-term strategy.

The third article, “Starting a Political Blog III: Principles to Apply to be Credible“, looked at some principles to follow in order to remain credible in the blogosphere.

This article outlines some technicalities involved in maintaining a blog. The technical bits of creating a blog are the boring bits, but also cause the most problems in the future if you get them wrong.

These are my views, and some others will not agree.

Put your blog in the right place

Blogs suffer very badly when they move around the internet, because links and authority in search engines are based on specific web page addresses (called “permalinks” in blog-speak).

A blog that moves to a new location has to start from scratch again. It can be done, but it is an intricate process that takes up your valuable time - and is not necessary when you plan properly.

Read the full article over at Poliblog Perspective.

This is the second in my series of articles about starting a Political Blog. My first article introduced a parallel that exists between political blogging and traditional political campaigning .

This post extends the comparison between developing a blog and running for political office, and highlights some of the similarities and differences.

The Basics

Blogs vs Leaflets: The back room no longer exists

A blog is a communication tool - just like the leaflet or the brochure that you distribute to your target audience.

However, now the previously separate processes of publication, distribution and follow-up conversation are all rolled together, and there is less cost involved.

Further, all these processes are now done in public, and leave an audit trail that can be read by anyone who takes an interest. The latter group will - inevitably - include your opponents at the next election.

Read the full article at Poliblog Perspective.

Introduction

Between today and New Year I am publishing a series of short articles on Poliblog Perspective about starting a political blog. If you have been thinking about starting a blog, the New Year is a good time to do it; these articles are designed to help you think through what you want to do, and to get the important things right at the outset.

These articles first appeared as two chapters of “Ian Dale’s Guide to Political Blogging 2007″.

Poliblog Perspective will be covering more aspects of Political Blogging during 2008.

Read the rest of the first article over at Poliblog Perspective.

Tags: political blogging, iain dale guide to political blogging, politics, matt wardman

As I argued in my previous post, the British media is getting into a bit of a lather about the enlargement of the Schengen border free zone. Can the media not get to grips with the benefits of something, instead carrying on about how ‘illegal migration will increase’?

But let’s look at that a little more. Head of the Frontex border agency, Ilkka Laitinen, has stated that “we are going to lose a very effective instrument to fight illegal immigration” (BBC News, EU Business) but what he goes on to say is that the concern is actually about the EU’s eastern border, towards Ukraine, Belarus etc. - so essentially that the borders of fortress Europe are not strong enough, and that internal borders have helped make up for those deficiencies until now.

So then, we fear the fortress is not strong enough? Oh no we don’t! What is the first ‘Reader Comment’ on Schengen at the BBC website: that Schengen is too much of a fortress and it will be harder for the Brit resident in Saudi Arabia who has a Burmese wife to get a visa to mainland Europe now to visit relatives in Slovakia! So the fortress is both too strong and too weak at the same time.

Quite frankly I do not give a damn about the Burmese wife of a Brit in Saudi Arabia. What I do care about is the Slovene resident in Piran who can travel to shop in Trieste, or the Austrian citizen who can easily get to Bratislava. Development of border regions such as Malmö-Copenhagen, Haparanda, Strasbourg etc. has shown how removal of borders can facilitate trade and boost a region’s economy. Plus when the Burmese person gets their Schengen visa, they too can move across Europe without needing a series of different visas.

Last but not least, even the Swiss are due to join Schengen in 2008, and if any country is paranoid about migration it’s the Swiss - black sheep posters and all.

[UPDATE - 22.12.2007]
On a completely different issue - rights to health treatment in different European countries - the Economist’s Certain Ideas of Europe blog has a similar tale of eurosceptics wanting to have their cake and eat it. I disagree with the take in working time, but beyond that the analysis is impeccable. I also detect a certain edge to the Economist’s blogging; it’s harder and more direct than the publication. Here are the journalists really stating what they see, without the rather smug language that sometimes masks the facts in the printed magazine.

BBC News Online has a good piece about the implications for tourism of the enlargement of the Schengen border free area in Europe, only one thing is missing: any discussion about Britain eventually joining the parts of Schengen that are actually useful to citizens. Essentially there are 3 elements of Schengen: no border checks at EU internal borders, a unified visa system, and a computer information database (the Schengen Information System - SIS) used to exchange data on border security and law enforcement. The UK does not participate in the first two, but does participate in the SIS, so Brits get all the oppressive bits but none of the useful liberal parts.

Now it is quite tedious to queue up at the ‘UK Border’ in Heathrow or Stansted, but it’s possible to live with it I suppose - the worst aspect is the chronic inefficiency of the checks and the long queues. The really silly thing is the visa issue. If you are South African and resident in the UK - for work, studying etc.- and have the correct visa, you have to apply (and pay about £40) for a Schengen visa every time you want to visit France or Germany. If you’re South African resident in France you can of course visit Germany without any problem at all.

In the meantime the UK is wanting to tighten its visa procedures still further, despite not really knowing how many non-EU citizens there are in the country anyway. It’s even managed to annoy John Purvis, a Tory MEP - and Tories in the EP are never well known for a pro-EU approach.

[UPDATE - 21.12.2007]
The borders are open today, and waves of criminals are already forcing their way westwards. That’s if you believe the British newspapers. See these articles from The Telegraph and The Guardian, and this scaremongering last month in the Daily Mail. We should be celebrating this removal of the borders. OK, it’s not quite the same as the ending of the iron curtain, but it’s important and symbolic. I was joyous when I watched Fico and Gusenbauer sawing through a border barrier on Euronews yesterday. You might argue that it is disingenuous of the Austrians who, after all, still impose restrictions on Slovaks working in Austria, but hey, they can at least cross the border easily.

Just a few lines, but they say a lot about the person:

By Friday I had to get up to prepare for a dinner at home with Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden as one of the guests (!) She accepted gracefully the not so professional service (= me and my husband not always knowing from which side to serve our homemade food) and was a great guest!

Those words are from the latest entry in Commission VP Margot Wallström’s blog - a very personal sentence, heavy with political meaning for this centre-left politician, originally from Skellefteå in the far north of Sweden. While the words in themselves made me smile, the meaning for online politics is serious: if a political blog is nothing more than presenting government information and adding a comment function, then is it worth bothering at all? Wallström manages to convey a picture of her as a person, building a rapport of sorts with her readership.

Much as I admire him as a politician, David Miliband’s blog is often rather dry and the presentation is even more dull. Phil Woolas’s Bali Diary had promise, but will there be more? The DWP blog (now closed) was an example of what not to do - tedious. Interestingly if you type ‘UK Government Blogs‘ into Google you get the Microsoft UK Government Blog as the number 1 result. Miliband’s blog is powered by some gruesome Microsoft technology (it has a .net favicon) so perhaps that’s the root of the problem - does government actually have any people working within its IT who - both in terms of programming or strategy - have any clue about the blogosphere? Looking at Margot’s blog should be the first these people should do.

Gordon Brown manages to make the matter of signing the EU Reform Treaty a national disgrace, so what are the reactions? The eurosceptic papers unsurprisingly whine about signing away sovereignty (good piece from Political Betting). William Hague has a field day, accusing Brown of being rude and at the same time signing up to the Treaty. More EU favourable papers like The Guardian publish leaders admonishing Brown, and rather polite comments urging him to do more.

So what about the blogs? Iain Dale chips in with criticisms along the lines of Hague’s and a similar line is taken on Conservative Home. There’s nothing on Lib Dem Voice or Labour Home about the issue, and one solitary post (other than mine) on Bloggers4Labour - from ‘Could Have Been A Contender’ who rails that pro-Europeans are incapable of putting forward a case for the EU any longer. Beyond the party political partisan blogs, Gulf Stream Blues has a good piece, as does Jean Quatremer (in French). Richard Corbett MEP’s reaction is not surprising from him - he has nothing on his blog about the signing of the Treaty at all, which I read as demonstrating he probably dislikes what Brown has been doing but he’s too much of a smooth politican to dare say anything.

Yet let’s look a little wider for a moment… As I have argued before there’s quite a community of people that blog about EU affairs. But what about within UK political parties? Eurosceptics of varying degrees are well represented (Dale and other moderates, and rabid sceptics like EU Referendum). On the Labour side there’s basically nothing - this blog is practically the only one that consistently writes about Britain’s relations with the EU from a critical yet pro-EU perspective. There must be other Labour bloggers that care about these issues, but - rather than just be concerned that nothing is being done (see Could Have Been A Contender) - why not try to address the issue and write some decent content? I’m not a Labour blogger ostrich with my head in the sand about these issues - it’s time others were more up front and honest too.

[UPDATE - 14.12.07, 1830]
ConservativeHome has picked up on this entry in its Latest News & Blogs section, which also follows a trend - a previous post that I wrote, speculating on the future UK European Commissioner, made Devil’s Kitchen, Liberal England and Mark Wadsworth react, and there was nothing from the Labour side. I’m not setting out to cause a fight, but manage to provoke the other side anyway, whereas I would far prefer it if I managed to get Labour folks thinking a bit…

[UPDATE - 15.12.07]
Seems I have been too hard on Corbett - in a post yesterday he says it was a ‘pity’ that Brown’s late arrival allowed eurosceptic newspapers to write about how Britain is marginalized. Ever the smooth operator when it comes to Labour matters on his blog.

It makes me so sad, so disappointed. The UK cannot even be a diligent enough European country to manage to get its Prime Minister to Lisbon to sign the EU Reform Treaty on time. It’s a matter of such elementary organisation, respect and kindness - a clear two fingers in the air from Gordon Brown to the rest of Europe’s leaders. Pictures of the signing are now available - look at those and think of that line of Tony Blair’s, wanting to put Britain at the heart of Europe. Look too at the pictures of David Miliband, arriving alone in Lisbon and grimacing, trying to put a brave face on matters, masking a certain chorus of whispers from the other leaders today. How much lower can Brown sink?

[UPDATE - 15.12.2007]
This story continues to rumble on. There are an interesting few lines in Patrick Wintour’s article in today’s Guardian about it:

Worst of all, Brown’s dithering over whether to attend the Lisbon summit signing of the EU treaty led to general media ridicule in a way that Number 10 had neither foreseen nor understood.

Instead of being feted for his courage in recoiling from this junketing, he was attacked for “sulky rudeness”. Number 10 countered that it was a fuss about nothing…

Sorry, but what is happening here? How could anyone possibly hope that not turning up on time would be perceived as courageous? There are certain norms of behaviour that you just have to respect as a politician, even if at heart you do not want to. I cannot imagine any of Brown’s predecessors even considering any option but turning up in Lisbon on time. OK, Thatcher, Major and others might have had their differences with the EU, but they at least had a grasp of decorum and good manners in public.

So Gordon Brown boycotted the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon because Robert Mugabe was there. Yes, he’s gruesome and evil (Mugabe I mean), but a whole host of other African leaders were there too - it wasn’t an EU-Zimbabwe summit after all. Plus Angela Merkel has been very critical of Mugabe from the summit. I wonder what Brown hopes to have achieved with all of this - his stance looks quite petty and hypocritical, especially as the UK government had the king of Saudi Arabia in the UK for a state visit this autumn - and I’m not sure you can argue their human rights situation is any worse than Zimbabwe.

But anyway, that’s done, Brown did not go. Now for the second challenge in a week - does Brown go to Lisbon this Thursday to sign the text of the EU Reform Treaty? Apparently there’s a diary clash - he’s supposed to be at the Liaison Committee in the House of Commons on Thursday. Now, I’m sure that meeting the chairs of 30 select committees in Westminster is important, and we would not want the PM to show any contempt for Parliament, would we. But can he be serious? Plus can any other EU leaders take Brown seriously in the future if he does not bother to turn up? The treaty is going to go ahead anyway, whether Brown attends this week or not. Anyone who is remotely in favour of Britain having decent relationships with other EU countries (ignore the content of the Reform Treaty) should be aghast if he does not attend - 2 no-shows in a week will be completely unacceptable.

[UPDATE 12.12.07]
Seems that the compromise is for Brown to arrive late and sign the Treaty on his own. Nothing like Britain being at the heart of Europe on this one then.

Via Nosemonkey’s blog I came across this column in The Observer by Tim Adams from just over a week ago about the European Parliament. What a load of drivel. I’ll quote one paragraph:

One of the problems with the European parliament is that it is not quite a parliament at all. Its members have no powers to introduce legislation; that is the function of the European Commission - the executive of 27 unelected grandees, one nominated by each European government (ours, a nice parting gift from Blair to Brown, is Peter Mandelson). MEPs only have limited powers to amend or block legislation in consultation with the Council of Ministers, drawn from the national governments of each member state. Beyond controlling budgets the the parliament - the only directly elected European body - concerns itself largely with talking and hoping that the commissioners, and their 16,000 civil servants, are listening.

[Update 4.12.07]
I’m glad to see that plenty of comrades to the pro-EP cause - Corbett and Priestley -  state the same view in the letters page of The Observer. (more…)