Derek Wyatt (London, MP): Citizens' Initiatives will, eventually, be introduced in this country. The success of the 10 Downing Street e-petitions website - for protesting the proposed introduction of road-pricing, as well as many other topics - shows a public demand for introducing a way to influence the political process. Citizens' Initiatives of one form or another are used in a number of US states and various countries around the world, and figures suggest that they increase average turnout on election day.
‘E-politics' has been around for a decade or so, but the popularity of the petition site on the Downing Street website coupled with the phenomenal success of social networking websites such as facebook, myspace, youtube and others show the vast potential of the internet as a force for democratic change and involvement. 1.8 million people signed an online petition but, were that option not available, how many would have written to their MPs to express their views on the subject? A figure far removed from that, for sure.
There are three particular web sites (of many) that I think are worth a further perusal. Across the pond in Charleston, South Carolina, Phil Noble has been ploughing what was once a lonely furrow with his politicsonline.com site which is outstanding, even if it does tend to be a bit American centric. In London, there is the rather dry hansard-society.org.uk site which has done some worthy work but failed, to be frank, to set the world on fire (despite winning Think Tank of the Year in 2006). It is however interested in experimentation with the net, and this is where it scores highly. And finally in Brussels is e-parl.net. This is a brave attempt (I am the chairman of the UK Chapter) to try and connect the global citizen as well as the democratically elected representative to think beyond his or her space.
For me, my web site is an integral part of my daily campaigning. It regularly receives over 450,000 hits per month but as we all know it is the individual visitors that are of real importance and we have about 70,000 of them. Of course, I wish they all lived in my constituency... but over 8,000 do. Each week about 5,000 people access my diary.
This year I have also opened up flickr, myspace, youtube and facebook accounts; I've corrected what the wiki says about me and I am thinking seriously of a secondlife too. I'm experimenting with them all and having the most fun with youtube where I am placing five new films a month on my site. I do like facebook but as yet I haven't quite cracked its USP...
Citizens' Initiatives and ‘e' democracy are both valuable tools to use in an attempt to engage more of the people in politics more of the time. And in my view it is clear that the web is simply the easiest way to add value to your stock as an MP.
This is an edited extract from a larger article by Derek Wyatt about Citizens' Initiatives and e-Democracy in the recently released Unlock Democracy pamphlet "Taking the Initiative - the Case for Citizen-led decision making".
