Tories Twitter Rules for Twits

The Daily Mail today is covering the story so a hat tip to them.

The Conservative high command has issued a directive to every one of their candidates in the forthcoming general election that all twitter, facebook, blog and website comment must be checked first!

So, they are saying every tweet must be approved, every facebook status update must be approved, every letter in the local paper must be approved, every blog post must be approved and every comment or post on a website must be approved.

What they are actually saying is this, we don't trust you to make decisions on your own and we will dictate more than Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson did in 1997.

What a load of crap, I'm intrigued how Tory Central Office will even cope with this?

They can't cope with the gaffes that Chris Grayling MP, George Osborne MP and David Cameron make, so how do they propose to manage 650+ candidates?

This is the party that could, according to their own arrogance, possibly form the next government!

Don't get me wrong, people make mistakes on these outlets but that's because they are human.

As a person who uses social media and also works for the Liberal Democrats I would be horrified if the party or my bosses started to tell me what I can or cannot put on my blog, twitter messages and facebook statuses.

But that's the difference.

The Liberal Democrats believe in personal freedom, the Tories, as is becoming more apparent believe in a central dictatorship.

More power to the power of social media and a lot less for Tory CCHQ.

Twitter, twitter, twitter

We have all become obsessed with it and it was only when we didn't have it on Thursday/Friday we all realised it - although I have UberTwitter back, Twitter itself is still not quite right.

What was funny for me was not only the realisation that I had sort of become addicted to it but watching the volumes of folk rush back to Facebook to realise that Facebook had also been buggered.

I have to be honest initially I signed up and wasn't really that bothered but now I use, Tweetburner, UberTwitter, Tweetdeck, Twitter, TwitterBerry etc etc

I actually quite enjoy using it and I never tie my messages to Facebook, if I change my status on Facebook it reads very different to my Tweets.

Since I have lived in Scotland I have tweeted a lot more and am really impressed by the sheer volume of my colleagues and friends within the Lib Dems who are active on Twitter. Here are just a few of my favourites in Scotland.

MPs
@willierenniemp @mooremichaelk @dannyalexander

MEP
@georgelyonmep

MSPs
@tavishscott @jimhumemsp

Councillors
@cdundas @katdn7

Bloggers
@andyreeves @caronmlindsay @cleslie92 @stephenpglenn @ruaraidhdobson

Communicating with MPs

Tom Brake MP, one of my previous brood when I was one of the Lib Dems London Campaigns Officers has done another first. A surgery on Facebook, see his poster on the left.

This was a surgery that Tom held on Facebook last Friday and has been blogged about here. Well done Tom, another great idea.

Tom Brake is often at the fore of new initiatives and finding ways to reach out to his constituents including a meeting organised via Facebook only last week - in the same week as the Facebook surgery.

I have known Tom now for nearly 10 years and I know he is so passionate about his job and keping his constituents in the loop about what he is doing on their behalf.

So, Tom has also joined the masses on Twitter. Given the mix of folk in Carshalton & Wallington it is great to see an MP actively seeking ways to communicate with them.

Lib Dem MPs make the difference

After only days of campaigning and pressure from people all over the UK and Liberal Democrat (and Conservative) MPs the Government, who are wildly out of touch with real people, have shelved their plans to exempt MPs expenses from the Freedom of Information Act.

Liberal Democrat Federal Leader, Nick Clegg said: "The Liberal Democrats are totally opposed to any Government move to allow MPs to avoid being subject to Freedom of Information requests.

"At a time when families are having to count every penny, it is outrageous that MPs are seeking to hide how they spend their money."

You can read the Nick Clegg's full statement here.

Today, the MPs will still vote on their expenses, but this is more about the auditing process and whether to have 26 headings rather than the current 9.

Well done to MySociety and Unlock Democracy for running a great campaign on Facebook, common sense won in the end but would it have done without this group and the Lib Dem & Tory MPs?

Tavish Scott on FACEBOOK

Well, I see that Tavish Scott's page on FACEBOOK is gaining fans week after week - to be fair it has only been up a few weeks.

It is another way of the Scottish Liberal Democrats reaching out to voters - given the multitude of elections facing Scottish voters in the next five years it is important that all politicians, whatever Party they represent reach out and listen to voters.

So, go and have a look at the page....