I don’t often post about using the web, being web-savvy to use the jargon.  However, I was inspired to write something today by this excellent post on LabourList

 As a web user – blogger and Twitterer with a serious Facebook operation – I believe strongly in the power of the new media. 

 There were two main reasons why I started blogging almost three years ago.

•  to reach both constituents and Labour Party members in London.  The regional system of representation introduced in 1999 made MEPs remote, some would say even more remote, from their electors and the activists and members of their political parties.  New media offered a solution.  Meeting your MEP online may not be quite the same as doing it in person and it certainly doesn’t get the reach of traditional media, especially TV and radio, but it does work.  My thanks to all those who read the blog, follow me on Facebook and look at my tweets.
•  to provide news and views on what happens in the European Parliament and the EU in general as well as politics more generally.  Since a large part of the written media in the UK is anti-EU, much of the news reflects that particular perspective.  Perhaps more worrying is the general lack of interest in EU matters across the board, both in the press and the broadcast media.  My blog seeks to fill some of those gaps, albeit in a very small way.

 New media has most definitely arrived.  The Labour Leadership candidates are using websites, blogs and Twitter with varying degrees of success.  Harriet Harman made full use of new media in her successful campaign to become Deputy Leader.  My only real question is why don’t more elected representatives make use of what can be a very useful tool?

I’d be genuinely interested in your views.