Andrew Neil

The shape of things to come | 26 March 2009

Today the Daily Politics stages the battle of the bloggers — on the New Labour left, Dolly Draper, on the libertarian right, Guido Fawkes — and we do so on a day when we have a compelling example of how the internet is re-shaping our media and politics.

After Gordon Brown delivered his speech to the European Parliament on Tuesday, he was subjected to a three-and-a-half minute riposte in the Chamber by Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, which many thought devastating.

Established broadcasters, while recognising that the Hannan attack was a cut way above normal party political banter, didn’t quite see how “Tory MEP savages Brown” made it a story. Then the bloggers got a hold of it — they have made it not just a story but a phenomenon.

The right-wing bloggers posted it and emailed it around.

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