Can politicians and blogging ever mix? |

Monday 15th November 2010 | 21:45

Can politicians and blogging ever mix?

Well, the shock news tonight is that Tom Harris has decided to end his blog.

I have to say that I thought it was consistently well written, concise and - that rare thing - fun. You can agree or disagree with his various views, but his departure will be a great loss to the blogosphere.

Tom explains that he came to the fateful realisation that instead of being a politician who blogs, he became a blogger who is sometimes a politician.

I think he's wrong on that one.

For my own part, I've always been aware that there is a danger of ceasing to be a journo who sometimes blogs and instead turning into a blogger who sometimes dabbles in journalism.

But the fact is that, if done correctly, blogging is just another form of journalism. Similarly, as Tom showed, blogging can be just another (often vibrant) form of political activity and debate.

He's right, however, that it can take up a fair bit of time (which was also the reason the excellent Mark Reckons cited when he quit his blog this year).

Maybe it was Ed Miliband's curious decision not to give Tom a shadow ministerial slot that made his mind up to quit. As Iain Dale found in selection meeting after selection meeting, blogging is not necessarily viewed kindly by some party activists*.

Tom's announcement this evening came after a day in which the pitfalls of politicians going online were once again swiftly exposed.

Eric Joyce's blogpost on Labour Uncut landed him in hot water and you could argue that it was partly because of the immediacy of the format. Still, it could easily have been written for the New Statesman's print edition or for any newspaper. It wasn't the platform on which he vented his views that mattered most, it was the views themselves.

How ironic that India Knight began today by pointing out that MPs who use Twitter (and blogs) properly can help reconnect with a jaded public.

Her words will have particular resonance, in different ways, for both Tom Harris and Eric Joyce tonight:

"Voter apathy is such that only 59% bothered last June. Something’s got to happen, and it’s not going to happen by sitting around waiting for people to like you by the simple magic of osmosis. Giving voters evidence that you have a beating heart isn’t a bad place to start."

*FOOTNOTE: John Redwood is one of the few MPs left to blog on a daily basis. Let's see how long he keeps it up.

Leave a comment...

Quietzapple

22:48 |
15 Nov 2010
0

Tom Harris is rather too much of a prima donna - wasn't he sacked while rocking the boat slightly? - and Eric Joyce resigned as a junior minister, has strong views on defence, came last in the Shadow Cabinet elections too. I've posted on both their blogs, and also on Lord Jim Knight on Lords of the Blog, and on Lord Toby Harris' outstanding one. Knight is the shadow minister, the others may well be Ministers in a few years time, but Ed Mili is likely right to leave them out for now. They will all make fine senior ministers in time, and i hope, and half expect, Tom Harris to resume his blog soon. Politics is a rough trade: blogging is part of it.

A week is a long time

00:07 |
16 Nov 2010
0

Not sure if this is linked to toys being thrown over the phil woolas decision by Harman but if it is what a

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