I sent this Vlog to Peter M this morning for the launch of LabourList!

a bit offberam here but not very much

given that this site is about ethics, politics and general enlightenment.


"the only reason Guido Fawkes and his cronies in the press are gunning for me is because I have founded LabourList and they, however much they slag us off, are threatened by it."

correct. and for this reason I would like to respond here. Mr Draper, please continue with yr inspiring work - and may that continue . Guido and cronie operate on the basis of intimidation and it takes guts to stand up to it. Please take strength from your supporters on this site and also go one step further and use their services. ...that in itself will require some effort.

We do indeed live in momentous times.

Just a follow on question from my last blog:

What did you make of the FSA awarding themselves 14 million in bonus payments in 2008.

To what degree do FSA staff have to fail before they loose their bonuses.

How badly does the FSA have to screw up before we see bosses their resigning

I think you will find that the total FSA bonus payments for 2008 is £ 33 million.

'NO REWARD FOR FAILURE'it sounds great,gets the headlines for the day and is clearly hot air.

I remember that Peter the Crab couldn't get on the NEC. Wouldn’t it be great if Peter the Blackberry was on the NEC?

But then again Ann Black has been posting her NEC reports online for years, so how dare the Tories claim to be leading the way online.

John I love the VLog, and congratulations Derek on the site, I’ve stayed away from it for 2 days and had withdrawal symptoms. Perhaps I’m going to need some physiotherapy!

My impression of the Tory online pressence is that it's too clinical and propped up by sockpuppets. That may be "leadership" and "communication" but it's not perfect by any measure. Labour is way rougher and their own people don't spend enough time supporting each other. Both need to improve their batting average.

I'm just kicking this out tosee what happens but the yanks have some great ideas like Epic's million dollar challenge and yard sales. Labour could run a million pound challenge to design its online presence, or set up an Amazon style thrift shop to sell stuff with Labour taking a fundraising cut. But, here's the the kicker: this kung fu's the game from whining and finger pointing to incentivising people.

Alistair Campbell commented on the "prism" and other people are pulling the Obama-lite trick. Well, that's the game and words are cheap but people need to know how to succeed. If Labour can more clearly and powerfully demonstrate and share success, I believe, people will want a slice of that. By stepping into the problem Labour will own that space.

i have posted two or three ideas on the other blog a few days ago - and they include extensions to the centralised phone bank concept - included virtual town hall/neighbourhood meeting. whereby we , in the community have a conversation with someone of importance via the net & webcam. planned and ad-hoc too. imagine that.

There is much that can be done to support the activist when he/she is physically knocking doors. Us (i.e other activists) can learn in real time what is happening at the doorstep. we can provide traffic the other way too guiding in realtime the activist at the door. So in a sense yu have a support group for the activist while he/she is operating in real time. Can there a bigger morale booster?)

Think energy. Think Focus. Think (smaller) communities. Think Support Groups. Think Engagement. not topdown. not bottomup. but everysingle direction that yu can think of.

Think Strategic insight.

A Taoist would call this "total war".

There’s a lot in that Charles, we can remember Iain Dale on C4N telling Derek that LabourList needs to have a balance of debating controversial issues within the party while having some items that rally the rank and file.

What people who aren’t party activists don’t realise is the depth of debate within the party; the Labour Party is nothing if it’s not a broad church. Ok sometimes that can make our conference look a bit of a blood bath but at the end of the day I don’t think we’d have it any other way.

Ann Black for example is part of the grass-roots alliance, and if you hadn’t guessed I’ve never voted for a member of the grass-roots alliance slate in an NEC election and I never will. But I like and admire Ann for the hard work she dose for our party so if she was to be voted of the NEC then I think I’d miss her.

The Tories just don’t get this, and to be fair if you don’t have true red blood running through your veins then I wouldn’t expect you to.

i for one would like to know how the Tories manage to sabotage the LabourList site when it was being discussed on ch4news. I presume that these are being done by the same bloggers who are then shown respect by the likes of Sky News ???


Some cleansing of the Tory blogging genepool requires urgent attention.
I wonder what that PR chappie who runs the tory party has to say for himself on this subject.

Neil Kinnock said of the Labour party in 1985 “[some behave as though] It’s like a public school boy’s game of chess; It’s not whether you win or lose, its how you play the game” we’ve since grown up.

The Tory blog sphere is a bunch of public school boys, they really don’t care about winning or loosing, they don’t even really know what winning means (by that I mean winning as something you do after an election victory).

The purposes of the Tory blog sphere include spread rumour, allowing people to vent their spleen, have a good joke about the economic downturn, laughing at unfortunate photographs of cabinet ministers.

Even when Derek Draper is criticised for using LabourList as a tool to attack Iain Dale / Paul Staines, at least he’s driving a serious political point (his utter hatred of racism).


I don’t know whether the Tories sabotaged LabourList during the C4N article last month, but it would be exactly the “fun” public school boy prank that somebody would have wet themselves over. Tragic really.

The Tory campaign is, mostly, just brute force and populism. They don't care about being right or nice, they just want to devour everything like a ravenous pitbull. This is not a moral position, quite sad, and something they need to be challenged on. It doesn't withstand the most cursory of scrutiny so is much weaker than it appears on the surface. One poke and they shake the bars of the cage and stamp their feet but this is merely a performance to boost their own confidence and hide their fear.

I dislike Tory arrogance and attitude, the Liberals writing aspirational cheques their party can't cash, and Labour boring on about unions and debate. God rot you all. I'm a Zen Buddhist. I don't expect anyone to "get it". ;-)

What your comment did for me is make my eyes glaze over at the thought of internal Labour hierarchies and squabbling. I don't play games that involve grind or griefers, and Labour's set-up like World of Warcraft isn't for everyone. That's something Labour need to get over as per Hazel Blear's recent keynote.

I hadn't planned on sticking around so this is probably my last day posting here, so I'll have to get to the point. People don't give a rats ass for smokestack policies or wrangling. They buy product and service, and if Labour (or any other party) is too vain to grok that they're dead. And that's a lesson for Brtain as a whole as well.

JP's effort is commendable because he's hauling ass, reaching out to people, and his comment has integrity. It wouldn't win any awards for the script, delivery, or scene setting but you have to start somewhere.

Who would've thought less than a generation ago that a senior politician could have a conversation with you in your own home on demand, or something like the Blackberry or iPhone would exist, and that these tools would be available to everyone.

We're living in the future.

Mr Prescott's true destiny is to become a popular hero. He is a model of renewal and rebirth.

OK. When is the launch of this blog that Peter cant go to?

It is 3/4 way through 12th Feb and still a Beta blog!

Brilliant. Love it.

I may not agree with much of the politics, but I think this is a fantastic way to engage with the public.

Very funny, good to see a sense of humour. But to business.

How do you square the circle where civil servants in failing departments (or at least those responsible for huge cock ups) still get their bonus payments.

Lets start with the 25 million quid paid in bonuses to the staff at the CSA.

I'm all for accountability, so don’t read this as an argument for letting the bankers off lightly. I'm in business and if one department had done really badly and lost a shed load of cash, Id be speaking to the whole team and telling them why we would all be tightening our belts.

But my point is this: We see precious little of this accountability in the public sector or in government. When do we ever see major failings punished. Just take a look at the horrendous procurement decisions during NuLabours term in government. NHS data base for example, Predicted to cost 6 billion but end costs now estimated at £20 billion not to mention the hidden costs of delay.

We also don’t see too much accountability from politicians, even ones who have resigned in disgrace several times, get top jobs in Brussels and then seem to resurface through highly undemocratic routes and back into the heart of government. Not to mention Lords offering to amend the laws of the land for cash.

I have no problem with accountability John, in fact I'm a huge fan, but it needs to be across the board and not just a private sector thing.

Wow! Fantastic. Great to see Big John back on the game (so to speak). He is spot on about bankers' bonuses; may I respectfully suggest that he amends his petition to include a proposal that members of the Lords accepting cash for amendments be subject to criminal prosecution? Oh, and while you are at it, include MP's of all parties working the "second homes" scam?

This is a wonderful Vlog John! It was great to be at the breakfast this morning. Lets see more Labour Vlogs and blogs as good as yours.

Best wishes,
Mary Honeyball
http://maryhoneyballmep.wordpress.com/

Brilliant. How did Peter react? Probably pretty well I suspect. There was that scene in Heat where Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro sat across the table from each other - two great men with their difference but masses of respect - we're starting to see that with Labour big-hitters on the web, and it's brilliant.

This was a brilliant piece by JP and was well received at the crack of dawn. It was very encouraging to hear the Party's innovative methods of 'engaging' further from existing supporters to coax 'undecided' people.

Keep up the great work DD and to all. And I hope that everyone was as inspired as I was this morning.

I would be truely inspired if the labour party connected with other inspirational people as a means of inspiring the nation. i.e a collective effort. what do you think?

do masses of these inspirational people exist - amongst the masses.

all neighbourhoods and communities have their role models and authority figures that we all look upto. How is the party highcommand getting on with connecting to these.

A very interesting presentation from the panel. It will be interesting to see how the parties avoid their online campaigning tools and strategies coming across as "Obama-lite". Not sure any have yet come up with something truly original, or effective at capturing public opinion.