Euro Socialists attempt to blog, comically
To combat voter apathy in the run up to the European elections in June (yawn), the Party of European Socialists (PES) has launched a blog. Party president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen chose May Day to kick off and he'll be posting regularly until polling day. Here's a sample:
Sunday 2 May 2004 (10:54) — HELLO OUT THERE — HERE COMES OUR PARTY, OUR VISION, OUR EUROPE! Quiet Sunday — but not a quiet world.President of the PES. A wonderful feeling — good to be President of a Party again. But also a big, big responsibility and obligation.
It's about strength. It's about reform. It's about modernisation. It's about making the PES a true, real European political party. "Yes, yes — but remember your personal touch, who you are, don't forget that it's about people", my friend Zita tells me on her mobile from Budapest.
If Howard Dean could blog to the left, so can the Euro Socialists, seems to be the thinking. And this is well and good, but the execution on this side of the Atlantic is simply comical. The blog is part of a site that uses frames (ultimate horror!) and readers who get worked up about Rasmussen's posts are invited to "Comment in the forum". Forum? What's a forum got to do with blogging? That's not how you do it, comrades. If this absurd parody of a blog is indicative of how the Party of European Socialists goes about its business, voters would be well advised to laugh at its candidates come election day. Meanwhile, here's one socialist, Dominique Strauss Kahn, who knows how to blog: La Gauche en Europe.
Sadly, it's too late now for Rainy Day to enter its European Blogging Band (EBB) in the race, but the next time the seats on gravy train to Brussels, with a lengthy stop is Strasbourg to stuff the pockets, are up for grabs we'll be there. That's our first electoral promise.
