Skipper

I've always been a bit sceptical of the more grandiose claims of the political blogosphere, and of Guido(Paul Staines pictured centre) in particular. I can recall suggesting we could say the 'bloggers have arrived' when a major leak was acquired via a blog rather than a mainstream outlet. Well, Guido, to be fair, has now provided such an event, assisted, it would seem, by the other major UK blogger, Iain Dale.

The resignation of Damian McBride-a former senior civil servant, remember, and not a mere political aide- was a major scalp for Staines. McBride(pictured left) was also very, even dangerously close to Brown and connected not only with the egregious Dolly Draper, but also Gordon's former, somewhat dodgy former spinner, Charlie Whelan. Whatever minor poll recovery Brown has managed courtesy of G20, will have now melted away.

Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home has called this 'a very big deal' and nobody could argue with that. He argues blogs are outside the 'chumminess' of the mainstream agencies and have 'no sense of trading favours..it's a pioneer frontier media'. Precisely how Staines received the emails will remain a mystery, unless the rules about non disclosure of sources are also not applicable to blogs but I doubt that. Can we say the mainstream has been subverted?

On this occasion, most definitely, yes it has. Could it be a sign of a major shift towards the new media? In the US we see the Huffington Post moving up to challenge the big beasts and this is where I wonder if the UK is truly yet in a position to follow suit. The HuffPo seems to be awash with cash and employs over 60 people- including seven reporters- some of them senior figures recently sacked from the mainstream. It is in a position to move from comment to reporting and once this move is completed the mainstream will be on the way out. But it should be remembered that the New York Times employs over a 1000 journalists.

When it, and other blogs manage to do this then a step change in the media will have occurred. We're still quite a way from that, I suspect on both sides of the Atlantic but the US will be ther first to do it.. Guido and Dale still seem to be one man bands and it's not clear if their blogging provides any substantial income stream. But 11th April 2009 certainly provides a major landmark in the UK's transition from mainstream to cyberspace in UK political communication.