An anonymous Labour MP recently told the Guardian that they had spent a lot of time speaking to local farmers who incorrectly believed the new tax changes would affect their farms, when they were in fact exempt. The culprit of such “confusion”? Social media. “In part this is because we barely have any good local newspapers any more,” the MP said. “In the past, even if you disagreed on policy, there was a shared idea of what the basic facts were. That doesn’t exist now.”
A politician blaming social media for members of the public misunderstanding a policy announcement isn’t only patronising toward voters, it’s a stretch of the imagination. Social media isn’t the enemy here; it’s the party’s failure to harness it.
