hustings.com

The official lists of nominated candidates have been out for a while so we can begin to compare the main sites aiming to help voters find out more about the candidates in their constituency.  Surprisingly there is no readily-accessible database containing the names and contact details of all the nominated candidates.  Consequently a number of sites have been set up.  I mention the main ones briefly and have used Poplar and Limehouse to compare them.  There are other sites (e.g. The Times) but so far as I can see none provide any further significant information about candidates.  Obviously I am biased towards hustings.com. 

For now it looks like any candidate wanting to reach as many undecided voters as possible should ensure they have a presence on each of the following national sites, as well as any local sites there may be (e.g. the excellent coverage on sites such as http://www.broxtowe2010.co.uk/ in Broxtowe and the Southern Daily Echo at  http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/elections/general_election_2010/).

(1)  Hustings.com

This is still the only dedicated general election site which allows a candidate to control the content of their page and which shows a candidate’s videos on their page.  Full features available include top links to local party and candidate sites, candidate campaign sites such as facebook, twitter, youtube, flikr, party networks and leaflets; a summary of a candidate’s priorities and experience; videos embedded from youtube.com or winkball.com; podcasts; a blog; and local and national news referring to the candidate and constituency.  There are also standard links to the party’s donation page.  

While not yet comprehensive, all 650 constituencies are on the site and so any candidate in any constituency can sign up and create their page.  It is free, independent and neutral and signing up only takes a few minutes.  Users can send in questions to candidates and to the parties.  It is up to the candidates and the parties whether they wish to respond.  We have just introduced a feature allowing anyone to post details of forthcoming hustings meetings in their constituency.

Constituency page for Poplar and Limehouse:  http://www.hustings.com/constituencies/poplar-and-limehouse

(2)  YourNextMP.com

The best use of crowd-sourcing in this area, it has probably the most comprehensive coverage.  The standard template provides easy access to full lists of candidates (most of which have now been confirmed) and contact and other details.  It provides some links mainly to Wikipedia entries and candidate campaign sites or profiles.  It also includes links to hustings.com profiles where available.  It is probably the best place to start a search for information on candidates.

Constituency page for Poplar and Limehouse: http://www.yournextmp.com/seats/poplar_and_limehouse

(3)  BBC.co.uk

Covers all constituencies and provides some background for each constituency including the 2005 results.  While it lists candidates it does not appear to provide any information about them or links to other sites, so is not very helpful to those trying to find out about their candidates.  

Constituency page for Poplar and Limehouse: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/d56.stm

(4) Guardian.co.uk and (5) Telegraph.co.uk

The Guardian site has some good background information on constituencies and candidates and includes some links to external sites.  It is working closely with mysociety / thestraightchoice / democracy club and so have good links to those sites for leaflets etc.

Telegraph.co.uk has recently launched its political database powered by the product selector iBlick. Therefore the emphasis is very much on a search feature allowing candidates to be filtered by e.g. education, age and gender. The constituency and candidate pages provide some good background information including ex-MPs’ expenses details and some links to e.g. campaign sites and twitter pages.  They still have some way to go in inputting candidates and links etc, a problem for any site which has to manually input all details rather than rely on crowd-sourcing. 

Overall the Guardian and Telegraph sites are likely to appeal most to journalists and researchers who will appreciate the advanced search features.  Until the candidate information is complete they will also probably face accusations, however unjustified, of lacking independence in the way they have written up candidates or included links and other information on the various candidates included on the site.

Guardian’s constituency page for Poplar and Limehouse: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/constituency/1519/poplar-and-limehouse

Telegraph constituency page for Poplar and Limehouse: http://ukpolitics.telegraph.co.uk/Poplar+%26+Limehouse

(6) Google.co.uk

So far it has only pretty sketchy coverage of the candidates in each constituency.  It provides some email and website addresses for candidates, but by no means all, and no other links to existing sites. So not very helpful, so far.

Constituency page for Poplar and Limehouse:  http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/elections2010/mps/

• Any candidate in any of the 650 constituencies can sign up to post links, their priorities and experience, videos and podcasts, a blog, and answers to questions from hustings.com members.
• Follow the candidate sign up link from the homepage or email me for details of how to get going.
• Its free, independent and only takes a few minutes.

From John Cartwright (OMRLP): “Wow!  Thanks for including me on your website – I am impressed by the large amount of information it includes and I appreciate the amount of effort which has gone into it. …”

From Simon in Welwyn Hatfield:  “It’s a superb site and an important service – thanks. …”

The spirit of the hustings has brought British politicians face-to-face with an irreverent, questioning public for centuries. It is arguably the most distinctive and valuable feature of our electoral culture, but it is not one that political parties can be trusted to keep alive in the internet age. It is no accident that Gordon Brown switches off the comments function on his YouTube postings, or that most of the free-comment facilities on the innovative WebCameron site were switched off after its first 8 months. That’s why initiatives like Hustings.Com are so important. They create the opportunity for public and politicians to interact in a neutral environment where party hacks can’t just delete anything that is critical or too challenging. The more scope there is for the public to initiate these interactions – asking questions and posting comments about their local candidates’ rival platforms – the better. The more we spread the news, and the more voters use the site to interact with and challenge their would-be MPs (rather than just to compare the rival party meerkats), the healthier our democracy will become.
Jon Lawrence
Author of ‘Electing Our Masters: The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair’ (2009)

Getting some great emails from people liking the site and wanting to add constituencies and candidates.   Will put up a testimonial page soon.

Interviews tomorrow morning for local radio in Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Cornwall, Sussex and Surrey and Colourful Radio in London.

New book just arrived from Amazon, “Electing our Masters, The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair” by Jon Lawrence.  Looks interesting.