Politics And Government In The Age Of The Internet

Politics and government in the age of the internet Lets start with some statistics and comparisons. Think back to October 1994 when the Labour Party put its conference proceedings on the web, leading the party to claim it was the first UK political party with an internet presence. Now, ten years on, the online political landscape has changed dramatically. In 2005 it is inconceivable that a political party would not have an internet site; in fact, one of Britains newest political parties (the Peoples Alliance) actually launched itself online (Happold, 2003). Similarly, MPs with web sites were a rarity ten years ago, so much so that no official statistics exist. Even in 2000, Ward reported that only around 16 per cent of MPs were on the net (Ward, 2000). Today, the results are vastly different. Epolitix.com hosts web sites for MPs and also links to those who choose to host their site elsewhere; currently around 63 per cent (416 out of 659) of Westminster MPs have a personal web site. The party breakdown is also interesting: . 97 out of 163 (59.5 per cent) Conservative MPs have a web site; . 258 out of 407 (63 per cent) Labour MPs; . 48 out of 55 (87 per cent) Liberal Democrat MPs; . four out of four (100 per cent) Plaid Cymru MPs; . three out of five (60 per cent) SNP MPs; and . both independent MPs (Dr Richard Taylor and George Galloway) are on the web. (Figures calculated by the editor based on party strengths on December 11, 2004 and according to Epolitix web site on that day.) Continuing in this vein, Tony Blair was the first Prime Minister to receive a petition by e-mail. He also appointed the UKs first E-envoy in the E-government Unit at the Cabinet Office, charged with improving the delivery of public services by joining up electronic government services. Local councils now have e-targets and all council services (where appropriate) are expected to be online by the end of 2005, thus making £1.2 billion of efficiency savings for the Government (Arnott, 2005)