Douglas – whoops, I didn’t see that question until now. Lots happening with NGN but I can’t talk about it unless its off the ground.

The main point is that I don’t want to start a project unless its going to make a difference… didn’t really want to focus my energies on organising events or petitions or talks or filling out forms because that is time consuming. Better instead to plan something more substantial. Hopefully in the coming weeks I’ll have the chance to explain.

Partly the problem is that the run-up to NGN’s launch was so time consuming that I didn’t have much time to plan for ahead.

1. As an American who was happily living in UK for several years and during the 2004 presidential election I would like to remind any admiring Brit that despite one of the most blatant of criminal conspiracy’s on the planet–the internet failed to rally anyone to effectively do anything.

2. Hurricane Katrina. The whole world watched in horror as not a bottle of water was dropped for days as thousands suffered. The internet did rally an uprising or coup to overthrow a government so rancid with stupidity and venality–a president who appoints an incompetent imbecile with no relevant experience as head of FEMA–this incident crossed party politics–everyone can be affected by this kind of criminal mismanagement…but did the population take to the streets? Any normal citizenry would have enacted a coup after Katrina.

In America, we have nothing like your BBC and Guardian interactive websites. Not one of our major broadsheets even has a dedicated Environmental section.

MoveOn.orgs “emergency” response to McCain’s Dr.Strangelove’s antics resulted in a pathetic, defensive, earnest little ad declaring: “we can’t have any more reckless politicians!” “Reckless?” Thats like saying Hitler was a “naughty boy”.

Americans are inert, insane, and collectively insensible with few exceptions.

Look at our news websites compared to yours.

The UK is smaller and has the critical issues debated on mainstream TV, print media and websites.

Information here is fractured and fragmented.

Majority of people here barely have a clue about Global Warming and many think its a hoax. The Green movement is more about market positioning that about creating a coalition with a targeted agenda and plan.

We have no infrastructure that will allow us to solve
serious problems that demand teamwork. As individuals we are great at acting–but when it comes to politics–to getting information and debate out into the general population on a regular basis–this does not exist.

Every country in the world has the corner news agent with papers in several languages with several points of view. Most of America has the choice of the local rag and Fox or CNN. So, if they go onto the internet what type of sites do you think they plug into? Just look at the type of rhetoric from Americans that typically shows up in the comments in response to an essay like Terry Jones’ Swiftian response to Mc Cain’s lunacy?

The American collective is in thrall to its fantasy of the myth of America. The few intelligent squibs on the internet represent a tiny, tiny percentage of what people generally think or express here.

The other day a friend bumped into someone who had just applied for a creative job at FOX. This person was asked if they were a Republican or a Democrat! This is illegal. One would think this would be a cause celebre–a major lawsuit–this would have been revealed before.

But nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Don’t be fooled.

Don’t be fooled.

True

As for Sunny, it’s just sour grapes that for once Scotland is the focus of everyone’s attention and not London. He also seems under the misapprehension that the New Republic is liberal, and Barack Obama is a progressive.

Did you spot this dreadful, but strangely effecting piece of kitsch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSkY8Y68P5I

Respect to Conor Foley. And wait to the very end.

Anas,
Is it really happening? I’d like to have seen Labour take an even bigger beating but this isn’t bad but what do you reckon will happen next? No one’s able to govern without a coalition.

Kind of contrarywise to Robert up at 1. Can I ask you a serious question? Where is NGN going? What is happening? I, along with a lot of other people bought into it. It seems to me – still – to make a lot of sense. But the NGN website seems stuck in time, there is no apparent momentum. No developments. No critique or analysis.

If you do have plans perhaps you could share them with us.

If you did a survey ‘would you give up your next major purchase of a household item or luxury good in order to achieve that’, you’d get a decent number of takers. You might even get some for the same question with ‘firstborn child’.

There really isn’t a direct equivalent to that in the UK: people who hate Blair tend to hate Cameron and Ming more or less as much. Only the ConservativeHome lot really have any idea of something specific and definable they want badly enough to work on, and ‘Cameron for PM’ is hardly a cause to set yourself on fire for.

Other than that, you just get hobbyists, the far left (but I repeat myself), and those people who make a habit of worrying, with varying degress of paranoia, about one or more of the Islamists, the BNP and the government.

Probably the best chance of some kind of net-populist movement would be a cause like electoral reform. If you don’t have anything you feel inspired to care about, change the system so it throws up something you do.

But how? I don’t believe providing an overview is enough. Representing a non-partisan view can also be done from within the fold, so to speak. I identify as a liberal for example, but that doesn’t mean I don’t criticise other liberals.

My point is that criticism aside, we need projects that will actually help influence elections and force the debate into a particular direction.

I think the slight change in Labour bloggers getting more active and supporting each other, in the face of a Tory blogger ‘popularity’, is telling and gives an indication of things to come.

Could be… but it has become more about slinging mud at each other rather than forging a plan on what needs to be done.

What criteria are you basing vitality on, what do you mean by declined (numbers, activity, numbers of daily post, traffic etc) where’s the data?

Just seen a lot of blogs go under… and the technorati ratings for all the big leftie blogs have declined… while on the right only Iain Dale’s and Guido’s have expanded (but that is thanks to the growing media attention they get).

Or at the very least get a savvy office sockpuppet to do it for them.

I do because once people recognise the opportunity involved it will encourage activity. All three main parties will have supporters using it to attack each other which mean people like us have a better position because we can provide a good, integrity based overview. I really think a non partisan, group blog approach is crucial to offset the tedium and negativity they will provoke.

I think the slight change in Labour bloggers getting more active and supporting each other, in the face of a Tory blogger ‘popularity’, is telling and gives an indication of things to come.

I think the British blogosphere has actually declined in the last year or so in numbers and vitality…

To be honest I really don’t know what to make of this, how can you tell? What criteria are you basing vitality on, what do you mean by declined (numbers, activity, numbers of daily post, traffic etc) where’s the data? Sorry to be forensic but assertions need to be clarified…

Robert, well yes… PP has helped me immensely to develop ideas and as a sounding board for ‘real-world projects’ so to speak. But I don’t think I’m leveraging the net and PP fully. A lot more could be done.

But if we think about the necessary development and consolidation of the progressive liberal movement in the UK… that is where the big battle needs to be fought. NGN is part of that but not the whole picture.

That said I’m fairly certain the next General Election will see a surge in social media/networking coverage and influence.

To be honest I don’t, unless people really get their act together. I think the British blogosphere has actually declined in the last year or so in numbers and vitality…