Have you noticed recently that more and more politicians are using live webchats as a means to talk directly to voters?
Just yesterday, Greg Clark, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, was answering questions on the Guardian Environment blog at almost the exact time that David Cameron was on mumsnet.
I’m not a member of mumsnet so couldn’t get on to ask a question, but I did manage to post a question directly to Greg Clark. What surprised me was that there were only a few of us that bothered to post something, which meant that Greg Clark actually saw my question. You can’t say that about every means of communication can you?
We know that MPs get tons of correspondence from their constituents and ministers and shadow ministers even more so. They have staff that respond to letters and emails and you never know what their staff will choose to highlight to them. So if you can’t get out to an event to ask your questions in person, why not take advantage of the online world to do it for you?
Will’s already talked at length about using twitter, which is a great way to follow your MP and prospective parliamentary candidates. I would suggest you also look at live webchats, party websites and your local politicians’ websites and start typing.
