Politics is stuck in the dark ages

Government has been wholeheartedly – ­ if not always successfully ­ – embracing the potential for technology to improve services to citizens, but the politicians have some way to go.

As local councils across the country go to the polls today, few candidates can claim to have turned to the internet to boost their appeal to voters.

The leaflet pushers have been as active as ever ­ – the tree count for all the paper thrown straight into voters’ rubbish bins in the past month must be huge ­ – but this new-fangled computer stuff seems to have passed our potential representatives by.

In London, where the highest-profile election is taking place, none of the candidates looked at the possibility, for example, of using social networking to engage with voters; nor have they made much mention of IT’s potential in improving the citizens’ lot. Ken Livingstone’s jocular anticipation of chips in our heads may not win him another term as mayor, but his Tory rival Boris Johnson can hardly claim to represent the internet generation either.

How different things are in the US, where the battling Democrat candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have put the web at the centre of their campaigns. The forthcoming presidential elections will be the most internet-enabled we have seen.

Perhaps part of the problem lies in the culture of secrecy surrounding technology in parliament.

Only now, after a series of data protection scandals, has the Information Commissioner been given the go-ahead to spot-check Whitehall departments for compliance. And MPs want to improve transparency by gaining access to departments’ management information systems instead of having to wait for annual paper-based reports.

The internet ethos is built on openness ­ – not a quality often associated with politicians. If our elected representatives could grasp how IT can connect them with citizens, not only would they be closer to our tech-enabled culture, but perhaps more open with us all.

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