I wasn't wholly enthusiastic about Power to the People, the independent inquiry which reported earlier this year on Britain's democracy - excellent analysis and problem-definition, conventional institutional solutions - so I was interested to see the Liberal Democrats having another go online. A couple of days ago they press-released Virtual conference to take power to the people. Their leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the conference would be available for the next month, in the run up to party conferences, adding:
The opportunity to involve people outside the Westminster bubble and help to breathe new life into political debate in the UK is simply too big to pass up.
Fair enough ... but hang on, where is this virtual conference? There's no link in the press release or anywhere else on the LibDem site that I - or their search engine - could see. A bit of Googling and I eventually found it through an item on Ming's Blog. Same text as the press release, but with the link and an opportunity to hear the launch through a Skypecast.
The virtual conference itself is a single-user Wordpress blog which means that participants can comment but not post their own items. There are also polls. Simple and effective, but perhaps a touch under-powered for the hype ... or to be fair to the blog, over-hyped for its modest intent.
Maybe the lack of a link on the press release was a simple oversight ... but it is now two days on, which suggests no-one has noticed or felt it important. I wonder if this a metaphor for the state of democratic debate and political coverage? Press officers don't bother with links to online conferences because they believe the political journalists won't be bothered. Writers of Ming's blog do bother because they know online readers want to click through. A Party virtual conference consisting of top-table questions and conference-floor commenting. No opportunity to start your own topic thread. Democracy and e-democracy not yet enjoined. A round of applause for having a go; not yet a standing ovation.
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