Mark Hanson is a consultant to the British Labour Party on their web strategy, and we're pleased to have his perspective on what that party is doing on the new media front. -- the editors

Whilst here in the UK we are used to playing catch-up with our American cousins, things have ratcheted up several gears in the past two weeks. Firstly the purchase by Tory Billionaire, Michael Ashcroft , of the blog sites, ConservativeHome and PoliticsHome , for a mind-blowing £1.3 million and then today, the launch of the Tory organising site, MyConservatives.com.

As far as the incumbent Labour Party is concerned, the Tories are catching up on a journey Labour has been on for over 12 months , recognising that success is about the extent to which you can facilitate the members and supporters and help them organise around campaigns and specific areas of interest as well as what parties do centrally. 

So what’s Labour been doing?

a) Producing the right collateral...