Cameron – Webcameron generates more ridicule than sensible debate
This passed my way which is good for a laugh.
Background: David Cameron was e-mailed to inform him that two ‘fake’ accounts for him have been set up on Facebook. Here’s his response:
Dear XXXXXXX
Many thanks for taking the time to email me regarding Facebook. I have made a formal complaint to Facebook as the accounts were fake as you correctly identified them to be, and now have as I understand it been removed.
I had no idea of them until you kindly emailed me about them. I may consider setting up a Facebook account soon, but I think as with my attempt at setting up “WebCameron” on Youtube, these things can all too often have superficial effects and on occasions in the case of “Webcameron” certainly, generate more ridicule for me rather than sensible debate, which is what I originally intended it to do.
It is a lesson I and other politicians who try and court the internet shall perhaps have to learn fast as time gets on, sometimes to our detriment!
Many thanks again for your thoughtful email. Keep in touch.
Kind regards
David
David Cameron
Leader of the Conservative Party
Leader Of The Opposition’s Office
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
So two things from this. Cameron admits his website has been a bit of a mistake which is patently obvious but for me I like this bit:
“my attempt at setting up “WebCameron” on Youtube”
Hang on there, did someone not mention to him that Webcameron hasn’t got anything to do with YouTube whatsoever or doesn’t he know the difference? Oh dear, someone keep him away from the interwebnet, he’ll get eaten alive.
7th March 2007 in Techie Stuff, Tory Bashing
treborc responded on 07 Mar 2007 at 6:35 am #
Take a look at Labour’s web site and the forum, if you think thats going good Labour must be worried because if these people were to vote Labour get one vote.
The problem is when they open these forums they never bother answering a question, or bother checking them, perhaps they might feel sick knowing people do not like them.
So unless they are actually going to respond to questions I’d say all parties should not have open forums.
Political Penguin responded on 07 Mar 2007 at 6:08 pm #
Treborc. Took your advice, had a look around the Labour Parties forum on their website. It actually appeared quite civil considering the tone of many discussions on the net and actually some constructive debates going on so on that brief look around I think I’ll disagree with you. however I think you may not be distinguishing the difference between a web forum and a blog site. Although they share many similar characteristics there are distinct differences in both conduct and content. So on that basis, if we’re talking about forums I think I would generally agree with you that they are open to abuse, blogs, well I could be here all night discussing those but they are different primarily because they although not exclusively tend to form around a single author and their responses to comments so in some respects I’d actually defend David Cameron from the perspective that he probably doesn’t have the time to commit to doing the job properly.
Johninnit. Thanks for pointing out the bit on YouTube, I guess it reinforces the first point, if it completely missed my radar it must have been a bloody failure. Actually I won’t fault Cameron for doing it even if he’s made mistakes and the result isn’t what he might have wanted. Politicians in general get a good drumming simply for being politicians and any who open themselves up to the potential abuse from the interwebnet certainly deserve a badge irrespective of party colours. It’s good to see the steady increase of politicians engaging in the medium and I’d personally like to see more.