Richard Baum

One good thing about moving house (assuming we manage to find somewhere and then complete on it in the next fortnight, which I concede might be pushing it) will be that the bombardment of mail that is this leadership contest will leave me alone and instead cascade onto whichever poor sap rents this place after me.

Today I received another missive in the post from Chris Huhne, which I shall add to the top of the teetering pile together with the ones I have received already from Nick Clegg. And it may all come tumbling down if I add to it the printed version of the manic whirring email-arama that seems to spew out an incessant stream of stuff about the leadership contest, most of it unofficial but an alarming amount of it from the candidates themselves.  

The internet is the source of much of the gossip and tittle-tattle swirling around the contest, and because serious websites make my head ache (there’s a reason that broadsheet newspapers aren’t back-lit), for me it is Facebook that is the supreme hot-bed of this needless shouting. It is where all the loud-voiced politicos in cyber-land come together to bray at the temple of the two-line internet vox pop.

This is probably the first major British party leadership contest to have taken place in the Facebook age. And it might be the last, given that the internet is moving so quickly. By the time David Cameron gets found out and removed sometime next year, Facebook may be a thing of the past, replaced with animated talking versions of ourselves linked directly to our brains and allowing us deep inside the thoughts of our ex-partners. Which, lets face it, is where most Facebook users really want to be.

But for now Facebook and the leadership contest is easy blog fodder, and so blog about it I shall. 

I typed in “Lib Dem Leader” into the search engine on there, and there are 29 groups dedicated to the subject of the leadership contest, including those advocating Samuel L Jackson as leader (3 members), “Big Russ” for leader (5 members), and me for leader (7 members, none of whom are me). Flattering sure, but to be honest Samuel L Jackson could whoop my ass, and I don’t like the sound of Big Russ much either.

The serious candidates have lots of groups all to themselves. There are over 800 members of one Nick Clegg for leader group, and 36 more in another one with the same name. There are 36 Cornish Lib Dems, and 46 Somerset Lib Dems, who want to align themselves with both their county and Nick Clegg. The South West is a hot bed of Cleggism, by the sounds of it.

Chris Huhne for leader has 136 members. “Chris Huhne this time” has 533 members. Unfortunately for Chris, “Chris Huhne last time, Nick Clegg this time” has 76 members, many of whom presumably forget that it wasn’t actually Chris Huhne last time, hence him standing again this time… Chris too has a geographical contingent, and this time it’s much more spread out, with the Welsh Lib Dems for Huhne conjuring up 23 supporters, and the Scots chucking 7 more onto the pile. “Yorkshire for Huhne” is a slight exaggeration given that only three people from the county appear to have heeded the call.

I am going to wait until the hustings to make up my mind, since it’s easy to click on a Facebook group and a lot harder to actually listen to some arguments and come up with a decision. But for now the Facebook-stakes is clearly going the way of Mr Clegg. Perhaps because he is younger, looks a bit more “street,” and probably appeals to Facebook types a bit more.

So if this leadership contest were a Facebook poll, Nick Clegg would have it. On this occasion I am thankful that it isn’t, although there are times I wish the clamour for more Facebook-democracy was a little louder. There is also a group entitled “If 1,000,000 members join this group I will become Prime Minister and abolish Council Tax.” It has 14 members.

Rick