Bring on the Liberal conspiracy

[T_i_B]

Sunny Hundal plugging his new website http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/ which looks like it's aiming to become the UK version of DailyKos.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2207197,00.html

Over the past 60 years, the British left has won most of the arguments on social issues. From establishing a welfare system and healthcare to independent media, the pursuit of equality on gender, race and sexual orientation, and the environment, the consensus has tended to favour liberal-left movements. And yet there is an unshakeable feeling that, despite 10 years of Labour, the liberal-left movement is lost, divided and abandoned.

The early momentum of Gordon Brown's ascension has waned. Progressives struggled to find the new ideas and transformative vision that they hoped for in Tuesday's Queen's speech. Does New Labour remain the vehicle for that vision? The party seems to have abandoned grassroots support as its backbone, instead choosing to position and market itself as the least worst option. But while there is an unmistakeable stench around party politics, a revolution is brewing on the web.

The internet is ushering in a new era of politics. Widespread discussion and campaigning on civil liberties, the environment, feminism and even foreign affairs is increasingly migrating online, where blogs and social networks such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook create communities of shared interests and ideas. During the recent demonstrations in Burma, more than 450,000 people joined a Facebook group that organised protests worldwide, and the British campaigning group Avaaz raised more than $300,000 in online donations.

The internet should favour politics on the left: it offers innovative means to organise people and allows independent media outlets to flourish with little cost. The US has shown the way. Progressive blogging networks there have helped activists to share information, do original reporting, raise campaign funds and broaden debate, helping shape the Democratic party's agenda and giving liberals a way to get involved. Yet in Britain the right has stolen a march. ConservativeHome, sounding board and news website for Tory activists and supporters, independently financed by YouGov's Stephan Shakespeare, is perhaps the best example of how party sympathisers can be engaged while bypassing the national media. Other supporters have launched Platform 10, to make the case for "a modern, liberal Conservative agenda".