Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Facebook-the new political site?

It appears that the contenders for the Labour deputy leadership have embraced New Media in the form of Facebook.Ellie Leverson writing in Comment is Free on the Guardian site notes

"A while ago I wrote about how the battle for deputy leader of the Labour Party would pan out if conducted through the ritual of the googlefight. But I realise now that googlefights are so over, just like the working men's clubs of the north and the wine bars of Islington. No, the battleground may well be Facebook, the networking website of choice for those who will be chasing the votes of Labour party members come May."

At the time of writing

"Hazel Blears has 225 friends and Peter Hain has 264. Harriet Harman, Alan Johnson and Jon Cruddas have yet to register though there are groups on Facebook calling themselves Jon Cruddas for Deputy (113 friends), Johnson for Deputy (215 friends) and Harriet Harman killed David Kelly (14 friends). Poor Harriet. Of the lot, only Hazel Blears and Peter Hain declare they are friends with each other.
Hilary Benn, however, storms ahead with 321. Whether he actually likes any of them of course, is a different matter, and with an election coming up, I should imagine it's irrelevant.

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