September 22, 2009

PoliticsHome bought by Ashcroft – are you suprised?

Posted in Other blogs, Politics, Society at 4:50 pm by Paul Sagar

Title idiocy corrected, thanks to Jim Jay for pointing that out!

The following is shamelessly stolen from Next Left (I hope they don’t mind):

Andrew Rawnsley has issued the following statement, resigning from the PoliticsHome website setting out his belief that the majority stake of Lord Ashcroft in a new company which owns the site makes it impossible for users to retain sufficient confidence in its political independence.

Ashcroft is deputy chair of the Conservative Party and the party’s largest donor, funding the active constituency campaigns of many candidates in marginal seats and having a significant voice in campaign strategy.

Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome, which has established itself as the leading grassroots forum, blogged about the deal under which Lord Ashcroft now has a 57.5% per cent stake in the site. Montgomerie tells readers that is confident in the assurances of editorial independence which he has received from Lord Ashcroft, that he will not seek to influence the editorial content of the ConservativeHome website.

Intriguingly, the investment (which I have not seen quantified) is to create a new centre-right online “newspaper”.

“I have today resigned as Editor-in-Chief of PoliticsHome.co.uk.

Thanks to the dedication and flair of the team, PoliticsHome has been an outstanding editorial success. The site has attracted plaudits from many other media organisations and across the political spectrum.

This is Andrew Rawnsley’s statement about PoliticsHome.

That praise has been generated by its ground-breaking methods of surveying opinion at Westminster, Whitehall and beyond along with its impartial reporting of all strands of news and commentary.

It has been both professionally and personally satisfying to work with the talented people who have achieved this in the eighteen months since the inauguration of PoliticsHome.

I therefore greatly regret the decision made by Stephan Shakespeare, the chairman, to do a deal which places PoliticsHome under the ownership of Michael Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. The site has been folded along with ConservativeHome into a new entity in which Lord Ashcroft is the majority shareholder.

I became Editor-in-Chief on the basis that PoliticsHome was dedicated to being a non-partisan site clearly independent of any party both editorially and financially.

It was essential for users of the site that they could feel absolute confidence in the political independence of PoliticsHome.

I do not believe that can be compatible with being under the ownership of the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.”

I don’t think anybody should be suprised about this, for two reasons.

1. ConservativeHome and PoliticsHome already share the same offices (tucked away just behind Westminster Abbey). This should come as no surprise, as both were already owned by Stephen Shakespeare prior to the Ashcroft sell-off. Shakespeare, who also part-owns YouGov, is himself a former Tory Parliamentary candidate.
There should therefore have been clear doubts about PoliticsHome’s editorial independence a long time ago.

2. The sell-out to Ashcroft is not a surprise, and should be viewed as entirely logical. Both ConservativeHome and PoliticsHome have been growing in size and influence. The Tory right has been consistently ahead of the game in using the internet to good political effect. It makes perfect sense to combine the officially non-partisan site with the partisan one, creating an online Tory “newspaper”. Selling-up to a major Tory donor and deputy chairman is good strategic sense.

This all shows that the internet is being taken extremely seriously by top Tories, not just marginal geeks like Iain Dale and Paul Staines (who kid themselves that they are of profound political importance, but aren’t).

Ashcroft no doubt smells a profit. But just as importantly he thinks the on-line frontier is an important one for his party to fight on.When blogs cease to become the preserve of nerdy losers, and real power-players like Ashcroft move in, it matters.

The right is attempting to consolidate and extend its grip on the internet political discourse. The significance of such moves should not be missed by the left.

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Disclaimer: My cynicism has absolutely nothing to do with the fact I applied for an internship with Politics Home and got rejected at the last round. Absolutely nothing.

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