Bloggers converged on Portcullis House last night for a packed seminar held by the Centre for Policy Studies and the Daily Telegraph to discuss Robert Colvile’s recent CPS report on the impact of the internet on the UK political scene. Speaking alongside Robert were George Osborne, the Telegraph's Iain Martin and founder of mySociety Tom Steinberg.
Speakers concurred that thanks to the power of search engines and the scale of information available online, never has the adage of the man in Whitehall knowing best seemed more out of date. George Osborne noted the dominance of the centre right in the British blogosphere and the way that Conservative Home and Iain Dale’s Diary have enlivened political discussion and debate. In a political culture of message control and centralised Party discipline the Internet certainly challenges politicians’ fear of ‘letting go’ and using new technology in a genuinely collaborative way.
The Centre for Policy Studies is breaking ground here with its new online forum ‘Webjam’ , attempting to rise to the challenge laid down by Alex Singleton in his Brassneck account of the seminar. But let's hope that online interaction, however innovative and empowering, never kills off the face-to-face event. There was a buzz in the room last night that you simply can't create on a screen.
