Podcast your vote
Ironically, it was the ill-fated Mark Oaten who kicked off the Liberal Democrats’ forays into bandwidth-heavy web campaigning with a “talking head” video introducing his leadership bid. His campaign manager, Lembit Opik, weighed in: “Basically, he’s a human being,” he told visitors to Oaten’s website. After the News of the World exposed the Winchester MP’s weakness for male prostitutes, his site was inundated with rubberneckers keen to verify Opik’s claim.
It was the popularity of Oaten’s video that helped to convince Martin Tod, the man in charge of Sir Menzies Campbell’s campaign website, that Lib Dem members would respond to audio and video broadcasts.
The other incentive was the restrictions placed on the leadership candidates by the Lib Dems’ own party rules. In an effort to create a level playing field, the candidates were denied access to the membership database. As a result, the only information members received by post was a short A4 booklet in which each candidate was allocated a double-page spread. Some are therefore under the impression that none of the candidates has bothered to contact them.
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