This article is more than 1 year old

Tories offer automated boring of friends and neighbours

Turn to Facebook to dodge doorstep abuse

The Tories launched a Facebook app this morning that allows supporters to harangue their friends and neighbours without having to think too hard or knock on people's doors.

The Share for Change page, which can be found here, gives supporters four messages which they can "share" with their Facebook friends.

The current four are: I'm voting for change; Look at Gordon Brown's record; I want to stop Labour's jobs tax; I want to protect the NHS

Two of the options feature pics of lovely David Cameron, while the more negative pair - on Brown's record and the "Job Tax" - feature a pic of a sweaty Gordon and a pair of what were once called bovver boots respectively.

The Tories promised more options throughout the campaign based on "user feedback". So, if you want the Tories to commit to add Fox Hunting to their national service options, or demand the Pope beatify Margaret Thatcher, you know which button to press.

Interestingly, when we visited the page, it was serving up ads for Mafia Wars, a WWII Shooter game, and an online casino called 32 Red.

Labour also has some "pledges" for sharing on its Facebook page, which right now are all pretty fluffy - Secure the Recovery, Raise Family Living Standards, Build a High Tech Economy and Protect Frontline Services.

Readers with long memories will of course remember the "pledge cards" that Labour confetti'd around in 1997. We suppose this is the Web 2.0 equivalent, with the added advantage that you can always change a Facebook page if you know you're not going to meet any of your commitments.

Meanwhile, Facebook has teamed up with the Electoral Commission to encourage people to vote in the election. The real one.

All visitors to the site tomorrow will be asked if they are registered to vote. If they say no, they will be pointed at the commission's website.

This will no doubt boost the proportion of British youngsters deciding to vote. For all the Tories bewailing the state of "broken Britain", surely no teenager is going to lie to dodge an earnest nagging en route to checking the latest update on the Buckfast or Renault 5 fan pages. ®

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