Finding the Liberal Democrats on the internet
With the number of different Liberal Democrat websites now numbering in the hundreds, it can be a little confusing sometimes to know where to start or which sites have what information. Mark Pack, the party’s Head of Innovations, comes to the rescue?
The
party’s main site, www.libdems.org.uk,
includes regularly updated news, briefings on the party’s policies, biographies
of our Parliamentarians, news about conference, local party contact information
for the whole UK and links through to other party sites. The listings for MPs,
candidates and local parties provide a comprehensive set of links through to all
their own individual and local websites.
However, for many people the best starting place is the Liberal Democrat toolbar, which is available for free from http://liberaldemocrats.ourtoolbar.com. It works on both PCs and Apple Macs, and brings to your web browser a bundle of convenient features, including the latest news headlines from the party, a Google search box (from which the party earns money each time you do a search) and a drop down list of the party’s main UK-wide sites.
In addition to www.libdems.org.uk, highlights amongst the other sites listed on the toolbar include Flock Together (www.flocktogether.org.uk), which lists social events, policy discussions, campaigning sessions, council by-elections and much more. You can list any party event you are organising – and there is no charge for this.
The toolbar also lists two unofficial Liberal Democrat sites, both run by party members. Liberal Democrat Blogs (www.libdemblogs.co.uk) brings together into one place the latest postings from over 150 blogs. Quite simply, if you are a party member with a blog, you can get it included on this site. So it is a great place to visit to see what other Liberal Democrats are saying and without having to trawl around lots of different sites yourself.
The other is Liberal Democrat Voice (www.libdemvoice.org), which features lively debate on the party’s policy and strategy, news about the other parties, a weekly round-up of the best blogs postings and regular contributions from the 2006 Blogger of the Year, Stephen Tall. It also has an online discussion forum, access to which is restricted to party members.
If you use the internet for shopping, the toolbar provides a link through to a range of shopping deals organised by the party. These include major retailers such as Amazon, and in each case you don’t pay any more for shopping with them via the toolbar – but the party earns commission when you do. It’s a great way to raise money for the party – as it doesn’t require you to spend anything extra!
The toolbar also has a convenient set of links to the online tools provided by the party, all of which are available for you to use at no cost. These include the email list server (so you can set up and run your own discussion or newsletter lists) and sites which let you run your own online surveys, polls and petitions.
Happy browsing!
