Exporting your manifesto
Let’s look at how the three major UK political parties are allowing people to share their manifestos.
First place: The Lib Dem Manifesto mashup creator. Wins hands down for unique interface and getting the message across in an engaging way. It gives the person the feeling of control by picking subjects. Minus points for the fixed width. It only fits on my blog because I hacked the height and width in the code snippet.
Second place: Labour’s youtube video nested in it’s own menu system is all right. I’m not crazy about the cartoon, which seems to be more aimed at the CBeebies crowds than the BBC crowd. While you can click around, the numbered chapters aren’t that helpful because they don’t list what the topics are. The size will fit most websites should anyone want to post it, but there aren’t any size options, so you’d have to change the source, which most people won’t do (similar to the Liberal Democrats’ video manifesto). HAving said that, the style of animation will get it more widely discussed and bandied around the web and they’ve made it simple enough to share.
Web page for the Conservative Party manifesto
Third place: Conservatives. The above link is as much as there is worth sharing because I’m not going to list all 33 links to download (yes, download) mp3 files for audio or your choice of either the 3.04mb or whopping 77.04 high-resolution version of the text pdfs. In effect, what we have is a web page, as sharable as any other, and looks clawing-you-eyes-out boring to sift through just to see how these people want to spend your taxes. I realize they want to invoke JFK by adopting the strapline “ask not what your country can do for you,” but the least they could do would be to offer a better navigation system to undersand exactly in what ways it’s going to do nothing for you.
People are so isolated, and so alone, and so suspicious, and so competitive with each other, and so sure that they are about to be conned by their neighbor, or by their mother, or by their sister, or their grandmother. What’s the use of having fifty percent of the world’s wealth, or whatever it is that you have, if you’re going to live this pathetic, terrified life?
