Guy Aitchison (Bristol, OK): David Cameron, it seems, can't get enough of the web. His well-staged performances on WebCameron suggested an early enthusiasm for all things ‘Web 2.0', but now it seems he is determined to link its most basic principle, that of user-generated content, to the very core of his political philosophy. A campaign launched by the Tories today, Stand Up, Speak Up, epitomises this approach. It is an online platform aimed at involving the public in drawing up the next Tory manifesto. As a visitor to the site you are invited to take part in a basic three-step process: reading the recommendations of the Policy Reviews; voting for your favourite policy ideas, and debating on the different policy areas. This simple process all takes place against the idyllic pastoral backdrop of the Conservative homepage and the results, we are told, will be given to the shadow cabinet who will use them as the basis for the next manifesto.
Launching the campaign in the Telegraph today, Cameron suggests that the recent revolution in web technology, led by Wikipedia, MySpace and Youtube, provides more than just an effective means for politicians to communicate with the public, it serves as a metaphor for the "new" bottom up, anti-statist politics he claims to represent. For Cameron, not only do these websites demonstrate that the public is "proactive rather than passive", they offer an argument for more democracy, proof that collective knowledge is superior to elite knowledge. Or as he puts it, "that the public are a better think-tank than a closed circle of experts".
The same interactive approach is evident in the Tory leader's enthusiasm for e-petitions (which I noted at the launch of the Democracy Taskforce report) and the party's decision to allow Londoners to choose and publicly quiz their candidate for mayor. This process, they hope, will not only help engage people and tackle disillusionment, it will ultimately produce a better candidate and a better mayor (indeed any OK readers who fancy their chances against bumbling, 'will he, won't he' Boris can download their application forms for the candidacy here).
How seriously should we take all this talk of new technology and a revolution in public life? Blair used to bang on about "getting" the modern world, but it was recently revealed he can't even use a mobile phone...Does Myspace really have anything to teach us about politics, or is this just another example of politicians trying to appear radical and cutting edge?
