Derek Draper is setting up a taskforce to advise on how Labour should deal with the blogosphere. He made the announcement at a feisty Labour fringe meeting, where I also appeared on the panel. PR Week were in attendance and have written up his comments on needing to monitor conversations on the web and where necessary challenge them. It is spun as an 'excalibur for the blogosphere' and Guido responds accordingly.

I agree with Guido’s sentiments that Labour shouldn’t even think of trying to manipulate bloggers or "astroturf" (positive comments about the party purporting to be from independent persons but are actually written by the party). In fact Guido’s blog isn’t the right place to engage for the Labour machine at all.

What they can do is monitor blogs that they decide are influential - either because they are read by target voters, the mainstream media or they will motivate the party membership.

Monitoring isn’t expensive and it will give a picture over time of sentiment among these groups rather than relying on a slanted media or focus groups.

They should also open up a bit to some bloggers. In the current age there are lots of intelligent, articulate people who take part in blogs etc who could contribute to the message, not as spokespeople or astroturfers but as genuine supporters. They just need to be taken seriously, treated better and armed with a few facts.

Finally it's also important that groups affiliated to the party have the tools to campaign for Labour causes. They may not relate directly to the general election but they challenge the emerging Tory orthodoxy and mould the agenda onto those things that Labour wants to talk about.