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A face in Cyberspace: Lucy Powell has racked up 248 friends on Facebook
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Party rivals come face-to-Facebook
Marie Burchill15/11/2007
AS A politician, you need all the friends you can get.
And judging by the new online battle between the two leading candidates for the Manchester Withington seat, current MP John Leech has some catching up to do.
Both Labour’s Lucy Powell and Lib Dem’s John Leech have created their own pages on the internet social networking site, Facebook, to boost their election bid.
And currently Mr Leech’s site has just two friends compared to the 248 that Ms Powell has already notched up.
Mr Leech only launched his Facebook profile page a week ago while Ms Powell has had hers up and running for more than three months.
Facebook allows users to collect friends so that they can interact with them through their own profile page, by posting pictures of themselves and sending messages to each other.
Both politicians believe that online networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo will be key battlegrounds in future elections.
Ms Powell said: “I think it’s a really good social networking site and it’s a great way for communicating with people who are interested in me politically.
“The number of students who have contacted me through Facebook is amazing, it’s a brilliant way to reach out to the younger generation. You can do so many things through the site, such as support worthy causes and advertise upcoming events.
“However, I don’t regard it as a substitute for all of the groundwork that needs to be done, such as attending residents’ meetings. I use it as an additional tool to my political campaigning.”
On her site, Ms Powell has pictures of herself campaiging, Labour party policies and a list of the campaigns she has supported.
Ms Powell also suggested that her rival Mr Leech has a bit of catching up to do in the battle for cyberspace.
She added: “It is a matter for Mr Leech how many friends he has, however I have found it very useful and he may want to follow suit.”
However, in defence of his shortage of friends Mr Leech has revealed that he is fairly new to the Facebook scene, having only set up his profile about a week ago.
He said: “I set up the page recently and haven’t really done anything with it since, however, I have lots of other ways through which people can contact me. I know that people have to move with the times, but I admit I am a bit of a novice when it comes to computers.”a
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16/11/2007 at 15:27
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As it is, Ms Powell keeps her profile tightly locked up (wouldn't do to have any facebook stalkers would it?), so it is a bit difficult to differentiate political support from wine bar acquaintances.
28/11/2007 at 12:34