According to a BBC report:

“A survey has found that only 10% of politicians conduct a quarter or more of their correspondence via e-mail.

The vast majority still prefer to use post and many respond to electronic messages with a written letter the survey also showed.

Only one of the MPs questioned used e-mail for more than 75% of their correspondence.”

It turns out that all of them have email addresses now, but some have actually switched theirs off.

Sorry I am a bit late picking this up but British MPs are complaining that now that (some of them) have email addresses (that some of them have published), people are using them to contact them.

“Committee chairman Michael Fabricant told BBC News Online: “MPs welcome contact from their constituents.

“What we are concerned about is often the constituent emails are being blocked out because the mail box is being filled by unwanted emails.”

Some MPs claim they are receiving up to 500 messages a day, while others seem to have hourly contact with emailers.

The US Congress faces a similar “problem”.

Of course if government was more transparent so people realised just how powerless most of MPs are to effect real change on general issues, there would be less lobby group “spamming”…

Perhaps what we need is better signposting of the places where lobbying can be effective and the further opening of those forums to online debate.downloadable movies free adultfucking movies ebony freefalcon studios free moviesfree movie incest sampleslarge free movies pornorgasm free moviemovie free pussymovies handjob free Map

They can be, of course, but one UK local councillor is already claiming that postal votes are for sale in his area for just £30. Future e-votes could be as well.

Voting that takes place in front of neutral scrutineers is not perfect but at least in a polling booth you can ensure your vote is free. If someone stands over you and watches you put your vote in an envelope then marches you to a post box or stands over you while you access a “secure” e-voting website there is no way to tell if you have been coerced or bribed.

The VoxPolitics blog has more on this and other e-goverment issues.

The UK government has just launched a green paper (a policy discussion document) on the UK government’s commitment to e-democracy. According to VoxPolitics – an e-democracy campaign group – this was “the world’s first offical eDemocracy policy” (actually except for Finland’s). They say the initiative appears to be more about adding Internet elements to the existing process instead of changing the process in response to new possibilities. If this is so, then it is an opportunity missed.

It takes a long time to change systems as large and complex as central government, so the sooner it is recognised change is necessary, the sooner the changes can begin. Alas, if you look at the tiny amount of time spent discussing Internet issues at the last election you can see why there is apparently no great urgency.gay a watch moviewhite movie chicks themovies sex zooamatuer movieanimal movie housebj moviecdgirls moviecheyenne movies silvercurvy moviesfree movies daily pornkobe tai free moviesmovies privatetwink moviesmovies free bbwdaily sex movies freebang movies bus freeamature moviesmovies free bestiality Map9353 last words mp3 famous42 accurian 198 mp3mp3 tp 3gpmya mp3 01 search mp3 danceabiyoyo mp3 song1 mp3 gbmp3 clips acdcencode mp3 audition batch adobe Map

A good example of why “build it and they will come” doesn’t work. The new live streaming video feed of the UK parliament drew 3500 viewers in its first day while the UK census information from 1901 drew 10,000 times as many. Why? Because a) people perceive – possibly rightly – that the main decisions that affect their lives are made elsewhere and b) even if there were a debate which affected their lives it has not been made easy for them to know when it is for them to tune in and archives by subject are not available.

The presentation I did to UK local government about the usefulness of virtual community and its care and feeding is now online in Powerpoint format.

Political Compass An interesting site that measures your political views on two axes – left vs right and authoritarian vs libertarian using some more interesting than usual questions designed to tease out personal views rather than the answers to specific issues. There is also the opportunity to compare yourself to their interpretation of various UK politicians. I am Economic Left/Right: -2.04 Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.50 it seems ( a left libertarian).link loan payday 50day saving loans account pay20 loan payday new advance cashloan debt bad consolidation credit adviseloans aircraft financing aviationland bank america loanand ilitary loans 1 mortgagesloan 125 home 100payday 12 18 loan credit internetlink loan payday 12

whodoivotefor A good idea badly done – answer questions about your policy views and it will tell you how you “should” vote in the upcoming UK general election, but I don’t feel the questions were well-chosen. Does anyone know a better questionnaire?