Posted by Okay, maybe I made that word up because it sounded good (there are other instances where it has been used), but I am trying to make a serious point.
Last year, the Liberal Democrat Group on Medway Council increased their number of seats with gains in Gillingham North and Watling (although they lost Rainham North to the Conservatives). Since then, they have seemed to maintain radio silence in terms of their online communications.
Their website last year went offline, and now their domain name, too, has expired. What this means is that some prankster could now register it and create a spoof website degrading to the Gillingham Lib Dems (in a manner such as Number10TV.co.uk).
This would be even more damaging when you consider the fact that there are still a considerable number of sites linking to the now defunct page – many Lib Dem organisations included.
Obviously, I wouldn’t do such a thing. But that’s not to say that no-one will. Now, there’s an interesting thought…
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The problem with the LibDems’ website is that it was hosted and maintained by former LibDem councillor Tony Luckhurst. He decided not to re-stand last year, so soon after the local elections the site was rendered effectively unavailable, simply by removing all the content from the home page, including links to the other pages.
Interestingly, those other pages were still there while the domain remained valid.
The problem they now have is: do they wish to portray themselves as a local party for the 21st century or not? If they don’t have even a basic Web presence (which is trivial to set up) they cannot consider themselves a serious political force.
Certainly no-one else with Internet access will be impressed by their complete lack of a website. Even the Medway Labour Group have a website nowadays, clumsy and poorly-designed that it admittedly is.
They at least have learned what I taught (and to which Cllr Mrs Murray has made sneering references while heckling me in the Council Chamber over the years) which is the value of an informative website.
Okay, theirs is nothing more than a fairly static party political instrument, designed purely to serve their electoral ends than be of real value to the public at large (take a look and it will be all too obvious), but at least they have made some effort.
Meanwhile, the local LibDems should at least protect their old domain name to avoid the risk of what you have hinted at, regarding a possible spoof.
The Lib Dems at a local level appear to be entirely shambolic anyway. I have been a member of the party in the past (and may well still be), and have tried to get involved at a local level. Unfortunately, short of the occasional invites to the local meetings (and the odd plea for cash!), I couldn’t get anyway. I attempted contact with them on a number of occasions as I wanted to get more involved in the political process. Each attempt received no response at all.
Quite how they plan to win over apathetic voters when they don’t even respond to the politically active ones, I have no idea.
I’ve just seen Eddie’s comment.
The LibDem organisation that exists here in Medway is almost entirely in Gillingham, so it really shouldn’t be that difficult to contact them (Eddie’s address is in Gillingham ME8). I wonder which address you used? Now that Tony Luckhurst has taken a back seat, his address wouldn’t be the best one, I’d guess, and might explain why they haven’t responded.
I have all their contact details on file here, and could email whatever is wanted in response to a request to: john “at” acornusers “dot” org if that would help.
Thanks for the info John.
To be honest, I’m not even sure of the address I used at this point. I know I sent one letter (to whatever the local contact on the party literature of the time was) and a couple of emails, but never received any response. This was about two years ago now though, so to be fair to them, things may have improved.
I appreciate the offer there John, but I am quite happy to sit out of the process at this point. This isn’t down to the experience I’ve relayed here, but rather the fact that politically I seem to have drifted away from the Lib Dems. I am still interested in being more politically active that I am currently, but it doesn’t seem appropriate to do so unless it’s as part of a party of cause I can wholly endorse.