I was informed a couple of months ago about a system – QDOS – that tried to compare the online profile of Silvio Berlusconi and Walter Veltroni, and Berlusconi scored higher. While writing my previous post about that I started to wonder: what MEPs have the highest online profile? I posed this question to James Everest, the very helpful chap from BBPR (I assume contracted by QDOS to promote the site) who had originally contacted me about QDOS, and, hey presto, he produced the full list of UK MEPs’ QDOS for me. The full list can be downloaded here, and this is the top 10:

Daniel Hannan Q4059
Jim Allister Q3984
Jean Lambert Q3830
Graham Watson Q3692
Jonathan Evans Q3554
Caroline Lucas Q3549
Richard Corbett Q3530
Elspeth Attwooll Q3525
Robert Kilroy Silk Q3466
Ashley Mote Q3400

Hannan’s position at the top I can understand, and Watson, Corbett and Lucas in the top 10 makes sense. Their questionable behaviour (prison, fake tans etc.) can explain the presence of Mote and Kilroy. But the others? Have I missed something about the reputation of Allister, Lambert, Evans and Attwooll?

Of course all of this cannot be measured in terms of whether the impact of a particular MEP is positive or not, but I think there’s something useful in this list about presence online. The tool might complement the more traditional measures of effectiveness.

4 Comments

  1. Don’t know but possibly Evans’ profile in the USA boosts his web presence?

  2. That’s very interesting!

  3. OK, thanks… Allister’s website is so thoroughly lousy that it’s unclear quite what he’s doing, and I must admit I don’t closely follow NI politics.

  4. Andrea

    “But the others? Have I missed something about the reputation of Allister”

    maybe his leaving DUP and creating a new party gave him a bit more exposure than he used to have

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