Why I think the Tory Facebook thing is a terrible idea

OK, this is super quick one, as I’m dashing out to the pub – but I think it needed to be done because I don’t think I have been clear enough about why I’m cross.

So…

I’m a firm believer in free speech. I don’t want to stop you, or anyone else, from saying what’s on your – or their – mind.

I am also very pro-democracy. It’s beyond important that you excercise your right to vote for whichever party or candidate you think is the best.

And I’m cool with you campaigning for that party. Even – perhaps especially – if I disagree with you.

So here’s why I will definitely break up a friendship with you if you install the Tory status update:

1. When I talk to you about politics, I want to hear YOUR opinion. Not the opinion of your party’s spin doctors.

2. I am friends with you – in real life and on Facebook – because I value what you have to say. Because you don’t spam me, because I trust you. Turning over your status update to an application that automatically issues spam is not the action of a trustworthy person.

3. Politics and religion are tricky subjects at the best of times. I have a passionate and abiding dislike of the Tories, which flares up whenever I am confronted with their propaganda.

I disagree with them on so many levels, it’s hard to know where to begin. Confronting me with that in bitesized chunks in what I consider to be a safe space (where I choose who I admit to my circle) is something that I consider to be an abuse.

I’m going to think about this some more. I am almost certain that this is a really terrible idea, and I really hope they are lampooned for it.

I like to think that the Conservatives don’t understand social media and I’m really hoping that this venture will serve as proof. It’s my firm opinion that neither of the main parties in this country have a grasp of the medium in the same way as – for example – the Obama campaign – for several reasons. Among them:

They are not regular participants in this environment and don’t understand the rules of engagement
They already have power and have become complacent. There is nothing for them to subvert and no groundswell of support for them to mobilise. They are tilting at windmills.

I really would like to know what you think – as long as you don’t spam me with Tory HQ bullshit