At Bloggerheads

With a couple of exceptions, the most effective (& read) political blogs tend to be free of party political affiliations. Guido Fawkes & Iain Dale, the exceptions to that rule, make no secret of their Tory sympathies & their direct links to the Tories, Dale particularly (he's stood as a Tory candidate in the past). However, their blogs are exceptionally well-written. They know that dull, Party-approved tracts do not a blog make. You may disagree with the content (& I certainly do) but you have to admire their style & relative irreverence.
Last week's PR Week, not a journal I normally take note of, revealed that former New Labour spin doctor Derek Draper is at the forefront of Labour's attempt to use the blogosphere (http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/article/848968/labour-tories-plot-dominate-blogosphere/ ).
The article does add that the Tories have their own plans but that can be taken as read.
PR Week reveals:
"Labour strategists are keen to respond to the growing influence of right-wing blogs. The eventual system could resemble a modern-day version of Labour's famous Excalibur unit, which was successfully used to kill negative stories by Tory-supporting newspapers in the run-up to the 1997 general election.
"Draper will meet sympathetic bloggers and web-savvy political campaigners over the next few months to thrash out the details."
I'm not expecting a phone call or email from Draper (we once crossed swords at a Labour conference when the Militant expulsions were being persued by Kinnock's High Command).
I also recall a BBC TV documentary a decade back in which he arrogantly lectured a traditional Labour-supporting trade unionist from the north east on the innate superiority of the Blair Project.
What Draper fails to understand is that the right-wing blogs are receiving so many hits because of their jibes at Brown's government, an increasingly easy target. He's also gravely mistaken if he thinks that any self-respecting blogger would allow their blog to act as a crude propaganda tool for New Labour.
Back to the drawing board, Derek.