Politicians must have audiences: democratic practice demands it. As those audiences mobilised by parties age and dwindle, new ones appear on the internet. The termites of indifference and contempt, corruption and manipulation, special interests and private cynicism, eat away at parties: the able and ambitious can scarcely be expected to decay with them. Where the prime minister’s massive speeches and ethical seriousness recall William Gladstone, and spring from a tradition of public meetings, Fabian pamphlets and party organisation, David Miliband, his boldest challenger, uniquely among his cabinet members ... blogs.
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