Twitter Ye Not

Politicians should always be looking at new ways of interacting with the electorate, and this becomes especially clear as we enter the unofficial run-up to the campaign for the first ever Multimedia Election proper. Yes, a lot of people had Broadband internet in 2005, but there was no Facebook, no Twitter, and it's fair to say the potential of the Internet had not been fully embraced.

A lot of MPs and would-be MPs now blog - such as, to choose a non-partisan selection, John Redwood of the Conservatives, Tom Watson of Labour, Lynne Featherstone of the Liberal Democrats and Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party.

If your MP doesn't have an email address for their office - and they don't all - then you should be asking yourself why not. Technophobe, old-fashioned or just not wanting to be easy to get hold of? In the 1970s, when I was growing up, my parents' generation could still be heard asking, 'Are you on the phone?' This increasingly redundant question came to be replaced by tentative talk, in the 1990s, of 'electronic mail addresses'. These days, we expect to see email addresses given routinely, often alongside a link to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. (Adjust according to generational preference.)

Some people hate Twitter and can't get on with it. Comedian Ricky Gervais came out against it recently, and even famous Twitterer Stephen Fry has taken a step back from it while he writes the next volume of his autobiography.

Twitter can be a two-edged sword for politicians. It can make you look hip, happening and in touch, part of the multi-media age - but it also means people can stalk you as they do other 'celebrities' on the site. Just today, Speaker's wife Sally Bercow has become a little irritated with those who are following her every move as she goes out on the school run and eyes up scaffolders.

Unless there is a double election in 2010 - and don't rule that out - then the next General Election after this one will probably be in four or five years' time. And by then, everyone will be talking about a new method of communication and networking which hasn't even been heard of yet.