Tim Ireland launches the Political Weblog Project where he aims to get as many elected representatives as possible using weblogs to encourage two-way communication with the people they represent.
I think this is a great idea. And not just because he has nice things to say about my own political weblog.
Cheers, mate. Oh, and they’ve just now hacked together a holding page at martinlinton.org.ukIt reads: “Welcome to Martin Linton’s website. As you can tell, it is offline getting some radical surgery.”
I think we can compare these elected representative weblogs to political interviews and pieces that currently appear on television, radio and in print. Does much of any interest ever come of these? Usually not.These weblogs will mostly be boring, because:1. Most elected representatives are often involved in dull procedural work.2. A lot of interesting things are restricted anyway, by the Official Secrets Act, the party whips, etc.So I don’t think this project will either achieve its aims or produce much content worth reading. I am of course open to changing my mind if the facts prove me wrong.
I think we can compare these elected representative weblogs to political interviews and pieces that currently appear on television, radio and in print.Not if they want to plug into this network. Blah-blah blogs die pretty quickly and/or rarely intrude. A lot of cool stuff has happened via weblogs these past years, including several ‘on the spot’ reports from some pretty interesting moments in parliament.I say we let any elected official who earnestly wants to try and communicate with us on fair terms be given every opportunity to do so.But I share some cynicism with regards to how many politicians will actually have the wit and will to do so.