Ellee Seymour

First he wows Lady Thatcher, then make Mariella Frostrup come over “all unncessary”.

How many more women can Gordon Brown woo in the run up to the increasingly imminent election?

I wonder if he has been following advice given in The Statesman which pointed out that Gordon the female vote decides elections, he needs more than a make over and won’t win unless he learns to speak a different language.

“It is a fact now universally acknowledged that Gordon Brown will not get his own mandate for No 10, and Labour cannot win a fourth general election, unless he wins the major share of the female vote.”

Benedict Brogan quotes Brown’s allies as saying Labour’s recent 11-point lead was because of the support of women, attracted by the ‘bread and butter’ issues such as education, health and gun.

If that is the case, which planet has these women been living on? Just consider our hospital’s failing hygiene standards, young children who are struggling to write , in fact British children are among the unhappiest and unhealthiest in Europe, we also fail many of our elderly citizens, and don’t forget our pensions disaster. Gun crime has increased steadily over the last decade.

Let’s hope these women come to their senses.

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I have just heard on the radio that Labour is appointing key staff for campaigning logistics and media relations – to start next Monday – gearing up for an autumn general election.

Whatever the outcome, I am disappointed that we did not use this last year to further develop political campaiging on the internet, especially as our political parties have been following the impact this has had in America and France, where Sarkozy’s internet television had 12 million viewers during the presidential campaign, largely fought out in blogosphere.

Prospective candidates here are left to their own devices to set up their own blogs, and many have done a great job. But I would have liked to have seen training and support made available, especially for using visual social media tools, like video blogs.

This report highlights why internet campaigng can be so vital in a marginal seat:

In this year’s local elections, South Norfolk Conservatives made a two-minute commercial outlining their manifesto and showcasing some of their candidates (tinyurl.com/2robr3). They won by a landslide. However, Eastbourne Conservatives made a slightly glitzier version (tinyurl.com/2skhn4 ) and were defeated. Neither of these videos were viewed by enough people to have affected the outcome one way or another, but in a few marginal seats, this sort of campaigning could make the difference between winning and losing.

Here are some top interactive American political websites for you to compare against their British counterparts: Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Ming Campbell. It seems that our British counterparts are flirting with the social media, dipping their toes in, rather than fully taking the plunge.

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