Labour versus Conservatives online

I saw a story in today's Sunday Times which piqued my interest about the funding problems of the Labour Party. Essentially, the story suggested that Labour was unable to borrow more money and so was doing less activity, such as telephone canvassing, than it might have in the past.

I don't think that this is earth shattering news. Any party in Government for over ten years starts to lose friends. There is clear evidence that, as many did before 1997, some of those with funds to hand are more likely to put it towards the Conservatives, in the belief that they will be the next Government. And we all like to back the winner. What I think is interesting is what this means for how Labour nationally and in local target seats will communicate and campaign.

With such limited funds, one presumably looks to cheaper methods, such as media management and the Internet, and focus less on high costing advertising and direct marketing campaigns. This hypothesis would suggest that Labour could put a lot of effort into the Internet where the financial imbalance would be less of a factor. Traditionally, this level playing field hypothesis applies to the other parties versus the big two, but potentially it might apply to Labour as well.

There are two problems with this assumption. First, whilst Labour were often ahead of the Conservatives at a national level, and even more at a local level, up to about 2005/6 there is some evidence that this has been reversed in the Web 2.0 era. So they don't appear to be investing in the technology to be as innovative, and certainly don't have the breadth of delivery beyond MPs. Second, it has been the smaller parties, especially the Liberal Democrats, who have actually often been the most innovative in their use of both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 applications.

If I am correct that a) there has been, if not a level playing field, at least an ebb and flow allowing smaller parties to have their voice heard, and b) Labour have fallen back a bit in their onine advantage over their main competitor, then this seems rather odd. It seems to me that Labour is focusing its resources on the party and MPs/PPCs online presence, and not necessarily focusing on the other semi-partisan sites which shape opinion, where the Conservatives appear to have an advantage.

This suggests that at the next election there may not appear to be a whole of difference quantitatively between how the two party HQs and their PPCs use the Internet, which might imply a false picture. Such overt, partisan sites have a limited direct effect on floating voters (though they do on supporters), rather it is the wider online public sphere, often not overtly partisan which may influence both the media and party agendas, and to some extent public opinion. It is here where the Conservatives appear to have an advantage over both Labour and the Liberal Democrtas.