LabourList
Encyclopedia
LabourList is a British aggregated weblog supportive of, but independent of, the Labour Party
. Launched in January 2009, the site overcame its founding editor's involvement in the so-called "smeargate scandal" to become one of the most popular and influential political websites in Britain with 305,000 unique readers in its first year. Describing itself as Labour's "biggest independent grassroots e-network", the site's content includes news, commentary, interviews, campaign information, analysis and opinion from various contributors and sources across the Labour and trade union movement. In June 2009, LabourList became the British affiliate to American liberal news website The Huffington Post
.
, Ed Balls
, David Miliband
, Ed Miliband
and Douglas Alexander
. Labour movement figures such as Alastair Campbell
, Sunder Katwala of the Fabian Society, Jessica Asato of Progress
and Neal Lawson of Compass
number among LabourList's other frequent contributors. However, the site has also been praised for developing an independent, grassroots feel and promoting new talent, including journalists Laurie Penny and Rowenna Davis, and former editor Alex Smith.
Top 100 Political Blogs, leading Tory blogger Iain Dale
wrote: "Perhaps the biggest achievement goes to LabourList and Alastair Campbell, who both enter the top twenty after only seven months of blogging activity. For LabourList to appear anywhere at all following its disastrous start under the leadership of Derek Draper is a minor miracle in itself. But its new editor Alex Smith has established it as a serious left of centre forum in a very short time".
LabourList's coverage of an abortive coup against Gordon Brown in early 2010 drew more praise as the site cemented its reputation as a news source and a reliable barometer for the Labour Party grassroots. Gaby Hinsliff, the former political editor of the Observer, commented that the site was "coming of age" while the academic Charlie Beckett wrote that LabourList has "recovered both credibility and relevance ... I suspect it will be at least as important as ConservativeHome in understanding Party mood and machinations in the future".
In 2010, LabourList hosted its first offline events including campaign events to coincide with the TV Leaders' Debates that were taking place during the 2010 General Election.
Editorial developments to the site under Mark Ferguson's editorship include monthly polls of its readership on the "State of the Party" and "Ed's Inbox", a daily aggregation of blogposts from across the blogosphere.
, which measure the "number and weight" of links coming in from other blogs, LabourList has become the second most influential left-wing political blog in Britain, the fourth most influential overall and the 18th most influential in Europe, and is growing in strength.
By the end of 2009 in an article on left-wing blogging, the editor of ConservativeHome
Tim Montgomerie
acknowledged that 'there is more evidence today that the Left is getting its online effort together', citing LabourList, amongst others, for the growing credibility and influence of British left-wing sites.
On 29 January 2010, Labour cabinet minister Ed Balls
MP said in interview that "LabourList is flourishing and agenda setting, and that’s very powerful. It’s brought a huge change over the last year. Two years ago, we weren’t on the field when it came to new media. Now, I think we’re ahead of the Tories in new communications. Our people are younger, they’re in the real world, they’re young parents or they’re students, so we ought to be ahead of them in new communications. LabourList and Left Foot Forward
are really, really good. A year on from Labour people really grasping this stuff, the reality is now reflected in what’s going on."
, who was forced to resign after only a few months at the helm. Draper's staffer Alex Smith took over as editor in May 2009. After the election, Smith took a sabbatical from LabourList to work as Director of Communications and Campaigns for Ed Miliband
's successful Labour leadership campaign, after which he continued to work for Miliband. In December 2010, Mark Ferguson, who was Acting Editor of LabourList from June, took over the role.
had sent a series of emails to former LabourList editor, Derek Draper, discussing plans to set up a blog which would be used to post false rumours about the private lives of senior members of the Conservative Party
.
McBride resigned later the same day, and 10 Downing Street issued an apology for the "juvenile and inappropriate" emails. Gordon Brown later sent personal letters to those who had been mentioned in the emails, expressing his regret over the incident.
In the wake of the incident, Labour sought to distance itself from LabourList owing to its connection with Draper. Draper also came under pressure to resign his post as editor of LabourList. Peter Oborne criticised Draper's failure to resign and his continued association with the site as "morally revolting". On Wednesday May 6, Draper stepped down from his position as Editor.
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. Launched in January 2009, the site overcame its founding editor's involvement in the so-called "smeargate scandal" to become one of the most popular and influential political websites in Britain with 305,000 unique readers in its first year. Describing itself as Labour's "biggest independent grassroots e-network", the site's content includes news, commentary, interviews, campaign information, analysis and opinion from various contributors and sources across the Labour and trade union movement. In June 2009, LabourList became the British affiliate to American liberal news website The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
.
Contributors and content
The site features breaking news, analysis, opinion, policy and ideas from a broad cross-section of the Labour movement from activists to cabinet ministers, in addition to regular editorials and posts by the sitting editor and a core group of columnists, which include Paul Richards and Anthony Painter. Government ministers who have blogged on the site include Peter MandelsonPeter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
, Ed Balls
Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls, known as Ed Balls, is a British Labour politician, who has been a Member of Parliament since 2005, currently for Morley and Outwood, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer....
, David Miliband
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
, Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
and Douglas Alexander
Douglas Alexander
Douglas Garven Alexander is a British Labour Party politician, who is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the shadow cabinet of Ed Miliband. He has held cabinet posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including Secretary of State for Scotland and...
. Labour movement figures such as Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
, Sunder Katwala of the Fabian Society, Jessica Asato of Progress
Progress (organisation)
Progress is a political organisation linked to the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1996. It is broadly viewed as supportive of the leadership of the party, being pro-former leader Tony Blair...
and Neal Lawson of Compass
Compass (think tank)
Compass is a left wing pressure group, aligned with the UK Labour Party describing itself as 'An umbrella grouping of the progressive left whose sum is greater than its parts'...
number among LabourList's other frequent contributors. However, the site has also been praised for developing an independent, grassroots feel and promoting new talent, including journalists Laurie Penny and Rowenna Davis, and former editor Alex Smith.
History
In its first few months of life, much external commentary on LabourList was couched in the context of the site's problematic and controversial start. Writing on the publication of the Total PoliticsTotal Politics
Total Politics is a British political magazine described as a "a lifestyle magazine for the political community". It was first published in June 2008 and is distributed freely to all MPs, MEPs, peers, political journalists, members of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies, and all...
Top 100 Political Blogs, leading Tory blogger Iain Dale
Iain Dale
Iain Campbell Dale is best known for his conservative-minded British political blog Iain Dale's Diary and for his frequent appearances on UK news channels as a political commentator. He is also a publisher, broadcaster and former Conservative Party politician...
wrote: "Perhaps the biggest achievement goes to LabourList and Alastair Campbell, who both enter the top twenty after only seven months of blogging activity. For LabourList to appear anywhere at all following its disastrous start under the leadership of Derek Draper is a minor miracle in itself. But its new editor Alex Smith has established it as a serious left of centre forum in a very short time".
LabourList's coverage of an abortive coup against Gordon Brown in early 2010 drew more praise as the site cemented its reputation as a news source and a reliable barometer for the Labour Party grassroots. Gaby Hinsliff, the former political editor of the Observer, commented that the site was "coming of age" while the academic Charlie Beckett wrote that LabourList has "recovered both credibility and relevance ... I suspect it will be at least as important as ConservativeHome in understanding Party mood and machinations in the future".
In 2010, LabourList hosted its first offline events including campaign events to coincide with the TV Leaders' Debates that were taking place during the 2010 General Election.
Editorial developments to the site under Mark Ferguson's editorship include monthly polls of its readership on the "State of the Party" and "Ed's Inbox", a daily aggregation of blogposts from across the blogosphere.
Traffic and influence
In 2009 the site gained over 305,000 readers visiting 2.5 million pages; 260 contributors writing well over 2,000 posts; 70,000+ reader comments; 3,500 subscribers to the LunchtimeList daily email; 3,200 Twitter followers; and 1,200 Facebook supporters. The site revealed in March 2011 that it had attracted 70,000 unique readers, its highest ever readership for a single month. According to rankings by WikioWikio
Wikio News is a European online portal for news and blogs. It was launched on June 19, 2006 in France and is also available in other countries since 2007....
, which measure the "number and weight" of links coming in from other blogs, LabourList has become the second most influential left-wing political blog in Britain, the fourth most influential overall and the 18th most influential in Europe, and is growing in strength.
By the end of 2009 in an article on left-wing blogging, the editor of ConservativeHome
ConservativeHome
Conservative Home is a British political website started by Tim Montgomerie prior to the 2005 United Kingdom general election campaign, that aims to represent UK grassroots Conservative opinion.-Editors:...
Tim Montgomerie
Tim Montgomerie
Tim Montgomerie is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as Editor of the ConservativeHome website, and has been described as "one of the most important Conservative activists of the past 20 years"....
acknowledged that 'there is more evidence today that the Left is getting its online effort together', citing LabourList, amongst others, for the growing credibility and influence of British left-wing sites.
On 29 January 2010, Labour cabinet minister Ed Balls
Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls, known as Ed Balls, is a British Labour politician, who has been a Member of Parliament since 2005, currently for Morley and Outwood, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer....
MP said in interview that "LabourList is flourishing and agenda setting, and that’s very powerful. It’s brought a huge change over the last year. Two years ago, we weren’t on the field when it came to new media. Now, I think we’re ahead of the Tories in new communications. Our people are younger, they’re in the real world, they’re young parents or they’re students, so we ought to be ahead of them in new communications. LabourList and Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward is a left wing political blog in the UK established in 2009 which was created and orginally edited by Will Straw, the son of Alice Perkins and Jack Straw, until December 2010. Straw was succeeded by Shamik Das, the current editor....
are really, really good. A year on from Labour people really grasping this stuff, the reality is now reflected in what’s going on."
Personnel
The site was founded by former political adviser Derek DraperDerek Draper
Derek William Draper is a former lobbyist, former editor of the LabourList website, and psychotherapist. As a political advisor during the 1990s he became widely known for his role in two political scandals, "Lobbygate" and "Smeargate".-Biography:Draper was educated at Southlands High School in...
, who was forced to resign after only a few months at the helm. Draper's staffer Alex Smith took over as editor in May 2009. After the election, Smith took a sabbatical from LabourList to work as Director of Communications and Campaigns for Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
's successful Labour leadership campaign, after which he continued to work for Miliband. In December 2010, Mark Ferguson, who was Acting Editor of LabourList from June, took over the role.
Controversies
On 11 April 2009, it was reported by the Daily Telegraph that Gordon Brown's special adviser, Damian McBrideDamian McBride
Damian McBride is a former civil servant and former special advisor to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. McBride began his civil service career at HM Customs and Excise...
had sent a series of emails to former LabourList editor, Derek Draper, discussing plans to set up a blog which would be used to post false rumours about the private lives of senior members of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
.
McBride resigned later the same day, and 10 Downing Street issued an apology for the "juvenile and inappropriate" emails. Gordon Brown later sent personal letters to those who had been mentioned in the emails, expressing his regret over the incident.
In the wake of the incident, Labour sought to distance itself from LabourList owing to its connection with Draper. Draper also came under pressure to resign his post as editor of LabourList. Peter Oborne criticised Draper's failure to resign and his continued association with the site as "morally revolting". On Wednesday May 6, Draper stepped down from his position as Editor.