As to the adoption of new technologies, the inhabitants of the Westminster villiage are notoriously behind the curve (apart from an exceptional few). If I want ot fire a tweet at my MP, I can’t. I have to send an email to be filtered by a civil servant so that the person (who I didn’t vote for btw, but thats another bee in quite another bonnet) who is my unchosen representative never sees it. Or make an appointment at a time which is inconvenient for me and wait for an hour or more whilst Mrs. Jones from down the way complains about the dog mess in the streets (Which my MP can do nothing about).

As you can probably tell I don’t really think much of our elected representatvies or the system they use to rule us (and rule they do, I won’t dress it up) who I still believe to be followers rather than leaders. Alot of the legislation brought in ove the last 11 years has been reactive rather than proactive, usually in response to whatever the redtops are harping on about leaving the really important stuff which they should be dealing with to be buried in a bureaucratic quagmire.

MPs have more contact with lobbyists, donors, and civil servants than they do the people they actually represent and their policies have reflected this. No amount of twittering at them is going to change this fact.

Even if this weren’t the case, I hope you’re not seriously suggesting that it’s not an MP’s duty to represent (and engage with) their constituents in the best way possible? If this is true, surely they have an obligation to keep in touch with new technologies and channels like Twitter?

Or would you prefer that they got all their information about Twitter at second hand — retailed to them through the traditional media and dinner party conversations?

Just because everyone else is doing something, doesn’t mean it’s wrong to join in, you know. That would be a foolish strategy, IMHO.