Labour appears to be obsessed with its image on social media. If the general election result taught us anything, it’s that opinions on Twitter and Facebook do not reflect the whole country. Yet at a recent meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee, a decision was taken to create guidelines for its members using social media. Peter Willsman, a member of the NEC, reports on the Grassroots Labour blog:
So, this is how the New Politics manifests itself. Instead of the ‘straight talking’ politics promised by Jeremy Corbyn, Labour appears intent on stopping its members from voicing negative opinions publicly. Unsurprisingly, Corbyn’s critics in Labour have taken to social media to voice their concerns. Labour MP John Woodcock has tweeted:‘Several NEC members raised the issue of the very harmful leaks to the media and the very damaging way in which social media is being used. It was agreed that we need to develop a Labour Party Code of Conduct in relation to the use of social media.’
While Jamie Reed, the former shadow health minister, doesn’t believe anything will come of the NEC’s proposals:They will increasingly look like beached whales. Although there is another pond they could play around in https://t.co/Mpf80ZYNTa
— Lord Walney (@LordWalney) November 23, 2015
Mike Gapes, another outspoken Labour MP, is not worried about the proposals: https://twitter.com/MikeGapes/status/668802658959007744 Oddly enough, Labour’s NEC appears willing to brush aside controversial comments made on social media by Andrew Fisher, a political adviser to Corbyn who advocated voting for the Class War anarchist party in Croydon South instead of Labour — as well as abusing frontbench MPs. Willsman’s blog suggests the NEC will rule in favour of Fisher :@SebastianEPayne @MikeGapes @JohnMannMP It's straight talking honest politics from what I can make out. Doubt any such thing will appear.
— Jamie Reed (@JamieFonzarelli) November 23, 2015
Regardless of how Fisher is dealt with, senior figures in Labour need to stop obsessing about its image social media and think about how its policies come across through other media formats — television and newspapers for example. As James Morris’ polling for Coffee House last week showed, the party currently has a serious messaging problem: 67 per cent of the public have no idea what it is saying. In a week where the party will have to decide whether it backs bombing Syria and responding to the Autumn Statement and spending review, it should be thinking more about its policy positions and conveying them to the public and less about keeping dissidents in line.‘The press and media have told us that the NEC was going to be locked in combat over the issue of Andrew Fisher. In fact, this matter was not discussed. I understand that the officers’ investigation is nearing completion and that the matter will be satisfactorily resolved very shortly.’
Comments