A question for those interested in the internet and politics…
The Facebook group We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office! continues to grow at a remarkable pace. It is now bigger than the Conservative and Labour Facebook pages combined.
It is also now bigger than the party’s paid-up membership. Thanks to the fallout from that first TV party leaders debate, this looks to be the first time in the UK that a social network presence for a political party has exceeded the party’s own size. Does anyone know otherwise?
One explanation for this is the particular appeal the party has amongst younger voters at the moment. As Anthony Wells points out,
We can be fairly confident in saying that young people have swung the most strongly towards the Liberal Democrats. In both YouGov’s post-debate polls they have had the Lib Dems in the 40s amongst under-35s, compared to the mid-20s prior to the debate, an average increase of 17 points. ComRes have a similar pattern. The Lib Dem boost amongst under 35s seems to be at least twice that amongst all older voters.
Given this is about the exact opposite of what occurs in the US, I think its’ probably due to the compressed political season for the campaigns in the UK.
Another curious matter that’s happening with the surge of Clegg is that people are pointing to 18 or so days left, and that more than enough time for Clegg to fade and go right back to where the Lib Dems were. That seems totally odd, that such momentum would dissipate so quickly as it happened. When I see a peak like this in the US with 2-3 weeks out to the election, its usually too late for the opposition to stall it, much less make it go away; late adopters and laggards bring it out a month.
In the past surges have come and gone more quickly, but that’s been outside of an election campaign when the media agenda has moved on to other stories. This one is looking much more permanent, fingers crossed.