New Obama-style website suggest Tories might ‘get it’, says Anthony Painter

Darn it. The Conservatives might ‘get it.’ With the launch of their new campaign website www.myconservatives.com all the signs are that they have a grip of the direction that smart politics will move in.

The tools on the site- online campaigns, fundraising tools, and the like- are not revolutionary or complex. Users of www.mybarackobama.com will be familiar with it all. But that’s not the point.

If successful, the site will drive local cultural change and persuade activists and volunteers to think in more creative ways about local political engagement.

Issues will be of local relevance not just what happens to be in the party’s campaign grid at the time. In other words, it will enable local parties to reach beyond command and control party messaging into something more locally meaningful.

Should such a cultural change become embedded then a step change in the sophistication of the party’s democratic engagement will occur also. My concern is that this new development is not just a new website. It indicates deeper cultural change within Conservative Central Office. Trouble ahead.

Anthony Painter is author of Barack Obama: the movement for change and blogs at www.anthonypainter.co.uk