Now this is very interesting. And right up Labour’s alley (sounds better when you say it than when you write it).

A  UK Hansard Society report – Parliament 2020: visioning the future Parliament – asking first-time voters, parliamentarians and parliament officials about their visions for a future Parliament found that all groups wanted to see Parliament using new technologies to more actively engage with citizens.

The top priorities for all three groups (first-time voters, parliamentary officials and MPs and Peers) were:

• Greater use of new technologies
• Interactive communication

The main concern of MPs and Peers was the modernisation of procedures in Parliament, and while parliamentary officials, MPs and Peers prioritised access to information, first-time voters prioritised:

• Education and outreach
• Transparency and accountability
• Diversity of representatives

In the wake of the recent expenses scandals, this report follows a sea-change in British politics where the whole political system is now subject to a level of interest and scrutiny not seen before and this includes the inner workings of Parliament.

The recommendations were that Parliament:

• modernise an institution that is steeped in tradition but sometimes constrained by its own history and culture;
• provide information in more understandable and usable formats;
• harness the potential of new technologies; and
• better engage the public, particularly about how they can influence the legislative process.

Leaving aside the negative cynical stuff about politicians, this is heartening in that such a survey is conducted, that it may be taken seriously, and that people are articulating what they want: open-ness and transparency.

PS: In case you don’t know, Peers are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. Not sure why they got asked (PPS: that’s meant to be a joke)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 4:00 pm and is filed under comms & IT, consultation, democracy, digital. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.