Zorro’s attention has first
turned to the two main general election candidates as it is clear to all
commentators that locally that the candidates from UKIP, the Liberal Democratic
Party and the Labour Party are all on a hiding to nothing. Each will be trying
hard to ensure that they don’t lose their deposits and will be political
magpies; stealing votes from the two main candidates – Claire Wright (Independent) and Hugo Swire (Conservative Party).
This posting looks at candidates’ website and associated social media
accounts. Zorro will follow this up
with a posting looking at the websites being used in the East Devon District
Council elections.
Zorro started off looking at
Claire Wright’s http://www.claire-wright.org/ website. Here you find a very up to date set
of information about where Claire Wright stands on issues, national and local,
as well as being able to access current news information, alongside access to
her newsletters and various videos on key election themes. In summary Claire
Wright’s website is informative and current.
Zorro has previously blogged
about the poor quality of Hugo Swire’s website. As the incumbent who is
fighting, for the second time, to retain his seat in the House of Commons Zorro had anticipated that once the general
election campaign moved away from the phoney war and into the battle proper at
the end of March upon the dissolving of Parliament, that Hugo Swire’s website
would start to become informative and current. After all, Hugo Swire and the
East Devon Conservative Party employ a permanent agent and two administrative staff.
Don’t also forget that Hugo Swire claims off the taxpayer around £35,000 a year
to fund his Secretary, who coincidentally is also his wife!
Equally, given the very strong showing and high profile campaign that
his main challenger Claire Wright has consistently had since she launched her
bid for Parliament last summer you would think that Hugo Swire would want to
ensure that his website was informative and current. You would also think that
Hugo Swire would have realised that his election success or more likely
otherwise, has been dramatically damaged over recent years by the unpopular
political arrogance of his East Devon District Council colleagues. Hence even
more reason to up his game and his public presentation and presence in this
election.
So it came as a very real surprise to Zorro when researching for this posting that when he turned to Hugo
Swire’s website it was neither informative nor current. Zorro accepts that the election in East Devon will not be won
solely through websites, but they are now, along with social media sites such
as Twitter and Facebook, as well as the more traditional methods of attending
hustings, canvassing door to door and getting favourable coverage in the press
and media, part of a political candidate’s election armoury.
As an aside, Zorro notes how
well Claire Wright has utilised the social media sites Twitter and Facebook,
and although Hugo Swire has a Twitter account it is not utilised effectively. Check
out Claire Wright’s Twitter account http://twitter.com/clairewrightind.
One would assume that with all the media and PR support that the
Conservative Party must be able to give to their general election candidates, that
Hugo Swire and his team (remember his local Party has 3 permanent workers)
would have paid attention to informative and current website and social media
presentation. But no, they appear not to have done so! Or perhaps they are
doing it on the cheap with a rookie young intern! Or perhaps, Hugo’s heart isn’t
really in this campaign and he has already given up the fight!
So Zorro can now give a Cook’s tour of Hugo Swire’s http://www.hugoswire.org.uk/ website. And
if having read the rest of this posting you think that Zorro is in any way exaggerating his criticisms of the website, go
and have a look at it yourself!
Zorro’s handy cut out and
keep Hugo Swire website page by page synopsis –
HomePage
Latest News: the latest
posting is 16 April. It invites readers to “Keep
up to date with Hugo’s election campaign” and does so by directing you to
his Twitter account. http://twitter.com/@HugoSwire
– links to Hugo’s twitter page. The Twitter account only started focusing on
the general election 12 days ago by informing his Twitter followers “Welcome to my General Election Twitter
feed. Stay tuned for updates on my campaign!” A bit over hyped really!
If you follow Hugo Swire on Twitter as Zorro does then you will be pleased to see some nice photographs of
him with a few (only usually 3 others, occasionally 4, and of course the dog) of
his campaigners out and about and mainly nationally related Conservative party
election information.
Anyway, back to Hugo Swire’s website, and staying on its Home Page –
There are two other items contained in the Latest News section. The first
is a link to “Forthcoming hustings events”.
Click on the link for this and you discover that Hugo has, and is only
intending to attend four election hustings events on 7, 17, 28 and 29 April. Finally,
in this section is a piece that was posted on 2 April “Hugo
Swire welcomes increased funding for school buildings in East Devon”. By clicking
on the link it takes you to a story that does what the heading suggests.
Still
on the Home Page is the section “About Hugo”. Remarkably, it shows that the website has been tweaked
since Parliament was dissolved as it tells us Hugo Swire is a candidate in the
election.
Gallery Page
We are treated to a total of 7 campaign photographs. Perhaps that the sum of this campaign's activities.
News & Diary Page
The only section contained on this Page is the Local News one. There is
no diary information. Clearly there’s not a lot to publish about Hugo’s
activities!
Local News: Zorro
expected this section not only be up to date but also, because of the general
election campaign, for it to be full of commentaries on a wide range of local
matters. At least Hugo would that way be seen as being in touch with what
matters to the electorate locally. But no, the last posting is back on 16 April.
Indeed, in the past four months the only other
postings here have been on 2 and 7 April,
3, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24 and 25
March, 10, 13 and 24 February, as well
as 20, 21, 22, 26, 27 and 28 January.
Articles: this section
is almost redundant as there have only been two postings this year and these
were as far back as in January on 13 and 26 January!
Constituency Page
According to this
section it informs us that the East Devon Constituency “contains some of the most breathtaking scenery in all of
southwest England. For that reason, much of the region is classified as an Area
of Outstanding Natural Beauty. You can find a variety of coastline features in
East Devon including sandy beaches in Exmouth, pebbled coast in Budleigh Salterton,
and red cliffs at Sidmouth.
The
area is home to a large number of retired pensioners, and this helps to make
East Devon a comfortable, quiet resort area”.
Zorro is totally
underwhelmed with the description of the Constituency. It can’t even have been
written by a rookie intern. As it is so anodyne it must have been written by
someone who has absolutely no feel or real knowledge of the area!
Campaign Emails Page
Here you get some very formal responses to email enquiries that apparently
Constituents have sent to Hugo Swire at some time.
Contact Page
Incorrectly this page informs us that Hugo Swire is an MP. He isn’t and
hasn’t been since Parliament was dissolved some 3 weeks ago. Perhaps he is
trying to hold onto what he is about to lose!
So there you have it; Hugo Swire’s less than informative and current,
and in some parts out of date and inaccurate website.
Surely if a candidate to be East Devon’s MP (again) can’t provide a
half decent website to allow the public to understand what he is about and what
he is up to, then it must raise, in part at least, a question as to his
qualities to be our elected Member of Parliament!
Zorro invites you to compare
and contrast Claire Wright and Hugo Swire’s websites. Then compare and contrast
their social media postings. Then compare and contrast their campaigns out
there on the hustings, on the streets and on the doorstep. Then finally compare
and contrast what they both stand for.
You know whose side Zorro is
on. Frankly, it was an easy decision!
Just wait for Zorro’s
analysis of the East Devon Conservative Party’s website. It will make you weep!
It’s
time for challenge! It’s time for change!
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