Remember that the East Devon Conservatives, at least until 7 May, have
traditionally held the Westminster seat and run the District Council both with
large majorities. But at this time both the incumbent MP and the District
Council ruling majority group must be looking over their shoulders as we speed
towards election day.
Therefore, there is every good reason why the East Devon Conservative Party
would want to supplement their campaigns with excellent website and social
media streams. These are all easy, cheap and effective ways of making sure that
you get your message out to both your core voters and those who you are trying
to entice to place their cross against your candidates on polling day.
Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, depending upon your assessment of the
local Conservative Party, it is utilising neither a website nor social media to
push its messages out there to the electorate. The Party has neither a Facebook
page nor a Twitter account, and those few incumbent Conservative District
Councillors who have Twitter accounts seem to have forgotten what good and
effective use they can make of them!
So, all of that that must mean that the local Conservative Party is relying
upon its website to reinforce its on the ground campaign. Zorro is not so sure about that!
Indeed Zorro goes as far as
to ask where is the local Conservative Party campaign out there? Perhaps the Party,
and its hordes of local activists, are keeping their strength in reserve for a
great push in the final weeks of the election campaign. Hang on though, aren’t
we now into the final two weeks of campaigning?
Well, what’s the Conservative Party’s offer on their website? In truth,
it offers nothing at all. In fact it’s embarrassing beyond belief. The Conservative
Party has a huge infrastructure across the country, it is well funded, it’s
well connected and locally the Party employs three staff. But despite all of
that the East Devon Conservatives have a website that is out of date in its
content and appears to ignore the fact that it has (for the time being) a large
majority on the District Council and a seat in Westminster, because it gives no
hint of any local activity or issues that the Party is interested in.
The website goes further, in that you really wouldn’t know that there
were elections where the Party is under the greatest challenge to date for both
the Westminster seat and the 59 seats on the District Council. You would think
that the local Conservatives were trying very hard to lose both forthcoming
local elections!
The East Devon Conservative Party’s website http://www.eastdevonconservatives.org/
on the face of it looks nice enough with a large photograph of Hugo Swire
looming out at you.
Here’s Zorro’s pocket size
(that’s all you need) guide to this almost pointless website –
Home Page
Welcome to East Devon Conservatives: this section is out of
date as it refers to Hugo Swire as being an MP. Currently there are no MPs as
the House of Commons was dissolved on 30 March ahead of the general election
being called. Or is the local Party trying to kid us all that Hugo will be
returned to Westminster because after all he has recently said to the Express
and Echo newspaper that he is fighting in a safe seat.
Featured Story: this is a local story! However, it was posted
on 5 November 2014! The story is “Rt Hon
Hugo Swire calls for common sense on planning”. It is reporting one of Hugo’s
unusual forays into looking at and commenting on a local issue. The only
problem is that it was written almost 6 months ago! It gives a clear impression
that nothing of any significance has happened since it was posted.
So, there have been no local issues to report or no national issues? Zorro is somewhat bemused at this lack
of any reports on matters worthy of
posting on the website.
Local News: in anticipation Zorro expected there to be recent local matters that would be reported
here. But no, the last story that is posted is dated 29 October 2014 “Hugo Swire delighted by new Flybe route”. Yep,
clearly nothing worthy of reporting over the past 6 months again!
The two previous postings in this section were on 29 April 2014 and 5
September 2012! The Party really do like to under report local issues!!
National News: this
section is clearly linked to an automated national feed. When Zorro last looked at it was majoring on
the SNP and how it would hold the Labour Party to ransom after the general
election. The last feed has clearly been written after the SNP launched its
election manifesto on 20 April and so is up to date. It should be if it has an
automated feed!
Our Map: by clicking on to the button in this section it takes
you to a map of East Devon. Here there a number of flags. Click onto each flag
and you will get information about local events. This is all well and good,
except that there are none dated 2015. There is the odd one dated 2014, whilst
there are quite a few in 2011 and 2012.
So, in line with the rest of the website this reinforces the fact that
there is nothing really going on in East Devon that involves the Conservative
Party, or that they want the public to know about. Or perhaps they are just as incompetent
at running a website as they are a District Council or representing the electorate
in Westminster?
The one overriding point that you take from the Home Page is that there no mention of the general election and who
their candidate is in it, nor is there a hint that there is a District Council
election. Indeed, it doesn’t tell you who is fighting for which District
Council seat for the Party. Zorro is incredulous!
News Page
This page reprises the two stories from 2014 (the most recent being 5
November 2014) highlighted via the Home
Page, as well as three from 2012. Clearly there was no news in 2013! Additionally,
this section links into the national election Conservative publicity material automated
feed. So someone somewhere has spotted that there is a general election
campaign happening, somewhere. But clearly not in East Devon.
Westminster news: the last posting is from 5 September 2012.
However, there are lots of national Conservative Party election posters
(automated link to national Conservative Party feed).
Local news: the last posting is from 5 November 2014.
European News: the last posting is
from 29 April 2014
which highlights the then impending European elections which were held in May
2014. It doesn’t even report on the outcome of those elections.
Articles: the last
posting is from 15 March 2012.
People Page
This
page records that Hugo Swire was elected as an MP in 2001.
Future Events Page
All that
is recoded on this page is “Sorry, we
haven't got any upcoming events”. For Zorro
this statement totally encapsulates the whole website and the East Devon
Conservative Party.
Newsletters Page
The last newsletter that is posted on this page is from February 2014 which
was the Party’s European election special. So clearly there isn’t a newsletter required
for the general or District Council elections on 7 May?
Zorro has endured the turgid
and pointless website that is the East Devon Conservatives so that you don’t
have to waste a moment of your life
doing so. However, if you want to understand why the Party should not be
returned to Westminster or to the Knowle on 7 May pop over and have a look for yourself
at http://www.eastdevonconservatives.org/.
In so doing try and work out are the East Devon Conservatives –
- Interested in keeping the public informed of issues, local and national?
- Really wanting to persuade the public why they should support the Party?
- So arrogant that they see no reason to publicise anything of any consequence to the electorate?
- In total disarray?
Or, is it all of the above?
Zorro has a very clear answer
to all of this!
It’s time for challenge! It’s time for change!
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