Great post from Nick Stringer about the ambivalent relationship than politicans have with social media – is it a means of reinvigorating democracy (the Al Gore thesis) or does it merely provide a outlet for cynics and lunatics to undermine the political process?
Hazel Blears is mistaken to argue that political blogs are written by people with “distain for the political system” … in fact, the vast majority of these people are passionate about politics and the political process, why else would they waste their time expressing their views? They may be difficult, (if not impossible) to control and some of the views they express may be irrational or downright weird, but the smarter political leaders have already begun to recognise that it is better to leverage the power of social media than to ignore it.