leyton.org

I’m extremely puzzled why it’s taken so long for an MP to finally get the idea of Weblogging. Tom Watson would appear to be the first to do so.

I hadn’t really given it much thought until I caught sight of Roger Darlington’s introductory writeup on Blogging. It caused me to bring together a few thoughts I’ve had on politicians, politics and engaging the electorate. One of the biggest problems I see in current politics (British particularly, but not confined to us) is the growing disengagement between the politicians and the people who elect them. One of the side effects of this is the rise of extremist parties, and single-issue candidates. Fewer people voting for “main stream” parties means it’s easier for passionate supporters of such groups to get a result, which gives them valuable media attention.

So, the problem is getting more people to vote. Experiments have been tried, the most successful of which is widespread postal voting. Other forms are still in their infancy, but still these are attempt to combat the symptom, not the underlying problem. People are disenfranchised. They see no relevance in their lives to the political scene. Only general elections matter, it seems. Regrettably local politics doesn’t interest people, even though it’s likely to have more of an impact on their day to days lives.

Whilst my opinion on this is to devolve more power to regions, and give local people the power to affect more things, locally. Heck, even a local income tax rather than a flat rate tax makes sense in my book. The problem is still how to engage people in the political process.

Nobody really is interested in what their MP is doing. It’s a shame, but it’s here that I think that weblogging could come to the rescue. If only every MP felt accountable in some way to their constituencies outside of the election process, in a direct way, they might see how weblogging could help. Explaining what they have been up to on a periodic basis, and explaining how they justify their position.

Some simple moderation of comments too would enable constituents to perhaps hold online discussions (Take a look at kuro5hin for an example of how it could work) with the politician (and/or his team) to express their opinions. It’s not even “wasted” on just the electronically enabled. Local publications could easily syndicate and make use of the politicians comments to better inform their readership of where the MP is coming from.

It just takes a bit of time from the MP to do. To sit down and transcribe what he or she has been up to over the course of the last few days. And why. The local constituents could then express their opinions on them, and this could be fed back to the MP by their staff in the same way letters and e-mails are. It doesn’t even need to be all about politics! It’s good to see MP’s get hangovers too.

Sure, it doesn’t beat a face to face meeting with an MP, but who really wants to go to clinics in dusty town halls? I’d very much like to find out what my MP Bridget Prentice has been up to on a more frequent basis than her website seems to indicate.

The problem, I suppose, is time. MP’s are busy people. But the biggest problem that faces politics now is this disenfranchisement between the elected and the electors. It has to be addressed. An elected politician spending time justifying what they are doing, and canvassing opinion helps mend that gap.

Weblogging could help do that in some way, and could subsequently open up the access the electors need in order to feel more connected with politics. To make politicians more a part of the populace they represent than now. Opening up their thinking beyond the dry, boring, party-political lines that seem to be so sacrosanct these days.

Ok, so weblogging isn’t going to sweep through westminster just yet. But if not weblogging, then more content and explanation in the local printed media beyond the next surgery date would be a great start. Oh, and updating those websites a bit more frequently. Try something like Movable Type perhaps

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2003 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.