Modern democracy at work – two continental public officials enjoying a quiet game of scrabble as public debate rages
I read with interest the article “Let’s get people engaged in the political system by modernising the way we operate”, Hull Daily Mail October 11th. It related the proposal to broadcast committee meetings live and on-demand over the Internet. The idea is to address worries of a generation who are massively disengaged from the political system.
The Internet is certainly a very powerful broadcast medium – and Twitter an agent of democracy in some parts of the oppressed world. As a fairly new member to Twitter, I have begun to collect an interesting personal account of what’s going on with the rest of the world at first hand. It’s an exciting experience communicating with vast numbers of “Twitterers”. So the idea of working in real-time like this, it has to be said, is very tempting. We could follow public debate while shopping at Sainsbury’s.
And telephone companies can now pump video to Smartphones, tablets and PCs with surprising quality – at a price.
And that is the problem with this proposal; it comes at a cost to taxpayers both directly and indirectly at a time when many purses are empty. Smartphones, tablets, PCs and high-speed Internet connections are still out of reach for many household budgets, so the digital divide will enter the world of council business as it will benefit the digital community and exclude those not fortunate enough to have the means to equip themselves. Even today, close to 20% of the population has no Internet connection – that’s significant considering we have a coalition government.
And I am not so convinced local government is the place to conduct business in this way. Agreed it would be fun to see councillors sitting feverishly thumbing away on their tablets and Smartphones instead of straightforward noisy debate. And even more amusing to see others grandstanding to the populus to further their own personal causes and careers.
This technology proposal does not even come close to addressing ‘massive public disengagement’ with public business; that’s because it is largely caused by hypocrisy, scandals and personal ambition rather than serving the people. The only impact this proposal will have on the people is to raise their taxes.
For me, the only tablet I will need for following Council business will be for my head!
Mary's Blog 