Labour MP Kerry McCarthy has had an unobtrusive career since she entered parliament in 2005, voting along party lines with relentless loyalty. Her parliamentary expenses are a bit more interesting, if you’re keen on interior design – McCarthy furnished her London home from Habitat – but even then, she’s a fairly middling figure. TheyWorkForYou gives her claims for 2007/2008 a ranking of 215th out of 645 MPs. That leaves plenty of more spectacular receipt-flashers ahead of her.

If you’ve heard of McCarthy, it’s probably in her capacity as Labour’s new media campaign spokesperson, or (even more likely) as “Twitter tsar” – encouraging her colleagues to embrace the communicative powers of technology, and maintaining impressively open channels through her own blog and Twitter account. Well, open apart from a few exceptions.

In mid-December last year, she blocked blogger Iain Dale after a minor tweet-spat. And, shortly after, McCarthy was elevated from the Labour mass to become a key target for online Tory campaigners, with Dale promoting a #kerryout campaign set up by fellow right-wing blogger Tory Bear and citing “her behaviour on Twitter” as a compelling reason to push her out. Because social media etiquette is always hovering just above education, immigration and employment in a voter’s mind.

…read Sarah Ditum’s full article here

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2. 2010: The Politics of (In)difference and Similarity « Another Kind Of Mind

   [...] fully expect last month’s rather pathetic attempt by the Tory blogosphere to unseat the Labour MP Kerry McCarthy to be just the start of a protracted inter-party cat fight that will only escalate as the election [...]

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