Politics and the internet

Just been speaking at an event organised by Microsoft and the Hansard Society, chaired by Peter Riddell of the Times.  It was to launch this new report on how politicians used the internet - or fail to.

I'd only five minutes speaking time, as I needed to rush back to the Commons for a vote.  Key points I made were;

• The web's transforming politics - and it's not simply a question of what politicians are doing in SW1, and who happens to be twittering (MPs have been doing that for years).
• The real revolution is the way the internet empowers the disadvantaged the most - it's profoundly democratic.  It aggregates - techie speak for bringing people together and allowing previously specialist knowledge to be shared (I see it with mums and dads and their child's special education needs). 
• The web's transforming expectations - people increasingly expect their politicians and public services to be answerable to them.
• Mainstream parties will have to adapt.  As the barriers to entry dissolve - just as they have in business and commerce - expect new entrants.  The only way mainstream parties can maintain market share will be to adapt - expect open source parties.  Open primary selection to decide candidates etc etc.  Don't assume that the formal parties will be able to control "the message" with Party Election Broadcasts et al in an election, when a random supporter with a video camera, YouTube account and sense of humour can viral market their views.
• The web revolution will be transformative, like the changes brought about by the printing press - only more so and it'll happen faster.  In medieval Europe, knowledge was the preserve of a few.  It helped make priests and princes rather powerful.  Once that monopoly was lost - think printing press - things started to change.  I suggested that the internet might one day be to our politics, what Luther was to the church.  After Luther, doing religion wasn't just something you had to do through a hierarchical church.  Some day, politics won't just be something we do through hierarchical party machines.
• Our essentially ninteenth century system of representative democracy will have to give way to a system with much more direct democracy.

Having leapt from twitter to the reformation in a few minutes, it was time to leg it to the lobby for the vote.  I was sorry not to hear what Tom Harris (MP for Glasgow South and a great guy) and Lynne Featherstone (MP for Hornsey and likewise) had to say.

Posted on 24 February 2009 by Douglas Carswell

Comments

Desperately sorry you had to dash off; you opened up several very interesting lines of discussion, and it was a shame we couldn't take them further.

I was especially intrigued by your comment about 'empowering the disadvantaged': particularly in the light of later (brief) discussion about the 'digital divide'. For all we worry about social exclusion, you seemed to be saying that those who wanted/needed a way into The Corridors of Power were getting online anyway... making for a fairer balance where it ultimately matters. I'd love to have heard more.

And as for the point about blogging MPs getting a higher profile... I think you can take that as read. :)

Posted on 24 February 2009 23:11 by Simon Dickson

'The real revolution is the way the internet empowers the disadvantaged the most - it's profoundly democratic'.
I think you're spot on, and that's why Socialists both European and domestic will be gunning for bloggers with represseive legislation before too long. The quickest way with the dissenters.

Posted on 25 February 2009 09:11 by Mark Brentano

"internet empowers the disadvantaged the most - it's profoundly democratic."

I half-agree. Certainly politics is more permeable - but there's still a huge power of incumbency, though. If Dale/Guido/Tom Harris chooses to promote a particular person they can give them a seat at the table much more quickly than they could do it themselves.

Or look at how the rate of people following the Downing Street twitter went up 5-10x when it became a signup choice on registration for a Twitter account.

Arguably exactly the same effect happens everywhere else, though - most media is still 50% "who you know".

Posted on 26 February 2009 11:59 by Matt Wardman

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