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BRITAIN'S PARTIES TAKE CAMPAIGN TO THE WEB
LONDON (CNN) -- When Britain's Conservative Party wanted to show off its policy on the environment to journalists recently, it didn't run a fancy video, or organize a trip to a beautiful forest.
Instead, the Tories brought out a notebook computer and displayed the 'Green Manifesto' on their Web site. The party of yesterday's values was quietly proving that it can play by tomorrow's rules.
Internet culture is arguably less a part of life in Britain than it is in North America. But the Net's role in the last U.S. presidential race helped convince politicians here of its importance.
So parties ranging from Labour and the Conservatives to the decidedly alternative Monster Raving Loony Party all have Web presence.
"I think the Internet will have the same effect in the 1997 election as the mobile phone had in 1987," said David Lees, the Internet advisor to Paddy Ashdown. The Liberal Democrats' leader is a high-tech enthusiast who answers his own e-mail.
David Lees
"A marvelous new way of us communicating..."
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"We've tried to make it simple to use...":
224K/18 sec. AIFF or WAV soundLees believes the Internet, e-mail and the World Wide Web "are a marvelous new way of us communicating our message to voters, but more importantly for the voters to speak to us."
On a large party's Web site, communication is about giving users the big policy picture -- without overwhelming them.
"...a very dramatic approach."
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"We've stripped down an awful lot of information..."
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"...the demographics of the Web..."
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"We wanted to make what is actually a very large site feel very small," says Mark Wilson, creative director for The Wire Station, which built the Labour site. His goal was "to very much simplify the messages, and to get across all of Labour's core message."
The Tory election site is crisp and classical, with the party's signature shade of blue helping to reinforce its origins. Labour, on the other hand, gets an almost futuristic feel from photo-collage graphics, lots of vivid red, and an 'all roads lead to Labour' street-plan format.
The opposition's target audience includes young first-time voters. "There are critical issues to get across," Wilson said, "about why you should vote, and then how you should vote, and then why you should vote Labour."
At London's pioneering Cyberia cybercafe, chairman Eva Pascoe says that while events like online chat sessions with politicians have been popular, she doesn't notice many people looking for election information.
"You'd have to have archives," she said, "and none of the political parties provide good archives."
The Internet and local politics
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Pascoe believes the Web works best for parties challenging the status quo with single-issue campaigns that call for action.
The big three -- Labour, Tories and Libdems -- "just try to persuade to a point of view," she said, "but that point of view doesn't support any specific action."
With a fairly small number of British households online -- about 2.5 million -- the Internet complements traditional campaign tools like billboard ads and party broadcasts.
But you can't send e-mail on a billboard, or ask it for details on transportation policy. On the Net, you can -- and that points to what may be its biggest impact on British politics. It has narrowed the gap between the politicians and the people.
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