British Conservatives aim to blog way to power

BOURNEMOUTH - Under a youthful media-savvy leader, Britain's once-staid opposition Conservatives are turning to blogs to grab the attention -- and they hope the votes -- of the younger generation.

The Conservatives say they are turning to blogs, or online diaries, to talk to the "iPod generation" of 16- to 25-year-olds who are less likely to get their news from traditional media.

They say blogs allow politicians to be heard without the filter of the traditional press.

"There is a crying need for intelligent use of the new media," Conservative member of parliament and former shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe told a meeting dedicated to the topic at the party's annual conference this week.

"The biggest casualty in the last two general elections was democracy itself with record numbers of people staying at home. Heartbreakingly a very large number of them were young people.

"We can't reach them through a medium of our choice. We have to reach them through a medium of theirs."

The Labour Party led by 53-year-old British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been in power since 1997 and was initially famed for its slick presentation and communication skills.

But the Conservatives have improved in polls since David Cameron, 39, became leader in December.

Stephen Ward, a research fellow at the Oxford internet Institute, told Reuters the first British MP to use a blog was Labour's Tom Watson but the Conservatives were learning quickly.

"(Conservative) sites are leading the way," he said. "There certainly seems to be a push around this."

Labour's 41-year-old environment spokesman David Miliband launched his blog amid much publicity earlier this year.

Some critics said Cameron's www.webcameron.org.uk looked too staged, with the first video blog entry showing him washing up in his kitchen, but www.iaindale.blogspot.com by another party member received more than 325,000 hits last month.

"No serious politician can ignore the new media," Iain Dale told the Conservative meeting. "It empowers the little guy. The party that really gets the new media is the party that is going to really reap the rewards in terms of extra votes."

Tim Montgomerie told Reuters he set up www.conservativehome.com, another successful party site, after witnessing the campaign of Howard Dean, a one-time 2004 US presidential front runner who benefited from Web-based fundraising and campaigning.

"The Conservatives are definitely ahead on this in Britain and that's partly because the mainstream media is more leftwing, less sympathetic to the Conservative cause so there is a hunger to have a platform," he said.

- REUTERS