Alex Hilton

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Alex Hilton (born 4 January 1976) is an English blogger (author of the widely readRecess Monkey), a Labour Party "groupie", and a distant cousin of heiress Paris Hilton through his American grandfather.

Hilton was Labour councillor for Newbury in the London Borough of Redbridge until 2006, where, for undisclosed reasons, he did not stand for re-election

In 2005 he stood as the Labour parliamentary candidate in Canterbury. The sitting Conservative MP Julian Brazier increased his majority by from 2,000 in 2001 to 7,500 votes. For the next United Kingdom general election, Alex Hilton is the candidate for Chelsea and Fulham in London.

Hilton has gained some notability on the internet for his blogging activity, and as a self-styled "grassroots political guru" ^{[1] [2]}

[edit] Media work

His Recess Monkey website^[3] is a light-hearted politics website with a left-leaning slant. Among other 'tasteful' scoops Hilton reported on the "death" of Margaret Thatcher and a pool of blood in Parliament caused by an accident on an elavator. He was threatened with litigation by Conservative Future Chairman Mark Clarke after making attacks upon Clarke on the blog.^[4]

In November 2007 Hilton published content from the Facebook page from a daughter of Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who quoted a black friend's words "'She's not black... she's a nigga'", accusing her of racism. Dorries reacted angrily ^[5] saying "As an MP I don't mind if people want to take a pop at me - it comes with the territory. However, not my kids. Take me on all you want, but mess with my kids". Hilton reflected on the issue on The Guardian's Comment is Free website, describing himself as a "black man in a white man's body".^[6]

On 20 June 2006, he launched^[7] Labourhome with American-trained political strategist Jag Singh, in response to the great popularity of ConservativeHome. The site features blogging and other content aimed at Labour supporters.

Two days later, on 22 June 2006, Hilton registered the www.Messagespace.co.uk domain.^[8] Messagespace, a joint venture with Jag Singh and right-wing blogger Paul Staines went live on August 7 2006,^[9] and sells advertising space on most of Britain's major political blogs including Politicalbetting.com, Iain Dale, ConservativeHome, Lib Dem Blogs, as well as Staines' and Hilton's own sites. Hilton left the firm in 2007, leaving Singh as the CIO responsible for strategy and technology, and Staines responsible for the financial side of the start-up.^[10]

In late 2006 he also joined forces with 'PR guru' Mark Hanson who has positioned Hilton as a rival to the likes of Tim Montgomerie in the mainstream media.

In 2007, he was recruited by Hillary Benn's Deputy Leadership campaign as the Web Strategy Manager.

He has appeared on the Westminster Hour, Newsnight Review, Question Time Extra, Sky News, and BBC1's Election night coverage.

[edit] References