I was just listening to Jon Ronson’s piece for Radio 4 about how writing to MPs via email is apparently deemed to be irrelevant and that, unsurprisingly the No. 10 Petitions are ignored. The thing that struck me was that it took a while for radio to be adopted as a tool by politicians. Why should it be surprising that the Internet should be viewed with equal suspicion by politicians?

Ultimately, like a lot of technology someone comes along who has grown up with it and uses it instinctively as part of their lives. You have kind of already seen this in the Obama presidential campaign (although far from perfect). You see it with computer games and social networking.

No-one thinks that an MP’s office shouldn’t have a phone or a fax but you wouldn’t send them a telegram. So let the Luddites pour scorn on web constituents, someone else will probably value the votes.