Technology vs policy: Election smackdown!

Technology or policy - which will be more influential come this year’s General Election Campaign? According to the great and the good, meeting this week under the auspices of Delib - an organisation dedicated to using the internet to more effectively involve people in governance - it’s a no-brainer. Policy will win it every …

[cannon]

Both run by the corporations

it matters little who you vote for out of the main two parties, labour and conservative as they are both controlled by the corporations and are not in power for the good of us slaves.

our best choice is to avoid their spam advertising that is going to become more viral with the interweb & vote for any of the other parties.

[amanfromMars 1]

The worm has turned but they are just too dim to realise it, .....

.....and too rightly petrified to acknowledge the scams they are fronting and perpetuating.

Which all just goes to show us all how really out of touch politicians are with regard to what technology is doing without them, for who in the now most practical virtual field would entertain their self-serving non-help wannabe a leader roles? What are they other than mouth pieces for other people's efforts and ideas, or are they going to try and tell us that everything they share is made up by themselves? And unfortunately they are very choosy in whose other peoples' efforts and ideas they even acknowledge with them hiding behind any number of firewalls so they can express ignorance of proposals which would render the knowledge of their cosy little feather nests positions and media leading light entertainment strategies, both unnecessary and highly damaging.

However, let that not stop anyone who would have valid proposals, putting them to those who would profess to be in charge and leading the country with changes, but make sure that you also share them globally on magazines and blogs and replies to media which can viewed instantly around the world too, so that everyone can be constantly aware of their suitability for Office at your expense, for thinking to keep things private in the likes of an email is something all too easily abused with silence and zero acknowledgment.

[heyrick]

Dilution

Take my blog. Take any blog. Take any forum. Take this message I am writing now.

The technology gives a voice to millions who feel they have a point, want to make a point, or just want to blahblahblahyackyadablah. This is supposed to be empowering, and I do feel all nice when somebody thanks me for help they got from my site. But at the same time there is a vast dilution going on. Sure, we all know Stephen Fry is a big Twit(terer!), but I got most of that from magazines and news websites. Old-school media. I've never read one of his tweets, nor actually been on Twitter to look for myself. I've seen repostings of people who tweet from their phones every SINGLE lame thought that enters their heads.

I want to know what Gordon Brown intends to do regarding old age pensions. Minimum wage. Work benefits and NI contributions. I don't give a damn about what he had for breakfast and if he went to the toilet, did it stick? Any political party embracing the Web 2.0 ethos is going to have to make a name for themselves so they can be found above the morass of gibberish. That, ironically, will rely heavily upon traditional media to point out what we might not find otherwise, and it will often require them to make a fool of themselves Ballmer-style. Or maybe Fry-style. In either case, not "elect me to represent you" style.

Here in France, Ségo had quite a large internet following. They totally embraced what social networking had to offer. But, when the final tally was counted, it was a non-win on two reasons - firstly she was female (France isn't progressive enough, yet), and slightly more importantly a lot of her policies didn't add up. She'd run the country like Sweden and we'd all be very very happy but... uh... the cash is coming from where?

Social networking collects fanbois. It doesn't answer critical policy questions. Anybody that votes for somebody because of their cup size or their outstanding Larry Hagman impressions really doesn't deserve to live in a democratic country.

Personality is only, maybe, 10% of the whole equation. Look at Obama. Good personality, brilliant orator, but half the country doesn't want to see him in another term over his healthcare policy. What he is doing is, to my mind, right - but it is totally against the American capitalist ideal.

When we elect, we elect politicians.

If we want to elect faux celebrities... that's what Dancing on Ice is for.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just hope

That the opposition dont get too tied up in this nonsense.

After all - actions speak louder than words, although Mr Clown seems to think the exact opposite, even when he tells the truth.

[Richard Porter]

The technology will be incidental.

The best spin will win.

[Martin Nicholls]

Policy wins...

... unless you're voting conservative.. Because they haven't told anybody what theirs are yet but they're still winning in the polls.

Go figure?

[John Smith 19]

Goodbye Labour, your time is up.

That is all.

[Dave 3]

Not that old one

@Martin Nicholls

This 'Tories have no policies' line is drivel.

Surely an El Reg reader should be able to find the 'policy' page @ conservatives.com?

http://www.conservatives.com/Policy.aspx

or their 'draft manifesto' page?

http://www.conservatives.com/Draft_Manifesto.aspx

Oliver Letwin, writing in Standpoint, said:

"One of the things that makes this particular fashionable canard so bizarre is that, for better or worse, the Conservative Party under Mr Cameron has actually chosen to be more open in its policy development and to publish more detailed policy papers than any Opposition in recent times.

An inspection of the Conservative website will reveal a dozen Green Papers, setting out detailed policies on schools, welfare, the Health Service, prisons, the low carbon economy, international development, the voluntary sector, local government, housing and so on. Alongside these Green Papers, of which there are more to come over the next few months, there are major speeches on foreign and security policy from Mr Cameron and William Hague, and a series of important papers on tax, financial regulation and the fiscal framework from George Osborne and the Treasury team, as well as a large assembly of more minor policy pronouncements by other members of the Shadow Cabinet.

In short, it is absolutely impossible to substantiate the assertion that there is an absence of detailed policy from David Cameron's Conservatives."

http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2166/full