Accountability on your iPhone
Peter Hoskin 12:56pm
With Brown pitching his AV referendum as the solution to at least some of our political ills, it's worth highlighting the quieter efforts of another Labour MP, Derek Wyatt, to fix the system. Mr Wyatt, you see, has got involved with the MyMP iPhone app which helps voters track and converse with their MPs. The first version was released on 15 January, but, I must admit, I've only just come across it thanks to the Telegraph's report this morning.
Sure, an iPhone app is only a small thing. And, in this case, there's certainly room for improvement, as well as for more MPs signing up to the service. But it's a decent start - and further proof that a combination of simple technology and proactivity on the part of MPs can result in something very much like progress. Now all we need is an iPhone app which shows expenses claims in real-time. That really would be "post-bureaucracy" in action.
UPDATE: Dizzy thinks that an iPhone app may not be the best, or most open, way of reaching out to the people. He has a point. But I'm of the view that this is preferable to nothing – and all the better if more MPs get involved and in less exclusive ways.
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denis cooper
February 9th, 2010 1:09pm Report this commentHe's standing down himself, so it's easy enough for him to offer this unwanted gift to his successor and all the other MPs who'd have to live with it ...
THX1138
February 9th, 2010 1:12pm Report this commentAs my MP live two doors down from me, I don't need app I can just doorstep him. And the Tory front bench expenses are in the cloud on Google doc's, I wonder if Mrs Hilton, Rachel Whetstone head PR spiv at Google had hand in that?
Mr. Green
February 9th, 2010 1:15pm Report this commentHhhmmmm....
I'm not sure I want my MP spending his waking hours on the iPhone equiv of Facebook or Twatter.
I'd rather he did something for a living.
Mark
February 9th, 2010 1:29pm Report this commentDerek Wyatt is a popular and effective constituency MP who has done much for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. His party affiliations are not mine, but credit where it's due, and his support for the iPhone app goes with the grain of his ready availability to constituents.
TrevorsDen
February 9th, 2010 1:34pm Report this commentAs Dizzy points out - its a bit of an elitist way to keep in touch
oldtimer
February 9th, 2010 1:41pm Report this commentDizzy has an apt comment:
"I sincerely can't think of a better way to make an MP more accountable to his constituents than by producing an application for a closed source proprietary operating system on a jailed handset exclusive to specific networks with either high monthly contract costs or extortionate PAYG airtime and data plans."
DavidDP
February 9th, 2010 1:43pm Report this commentIt's a bit useless for the 85% or so of the population that don't have an iPhone.
Sacre Bleu
February 9th, 2010 2:10pm Report this commentSounds like another chargeable expense to me. Got to hand it to these guys, nobody does anything for free.
London Calling
February 9th, 2010 3:41pm Report this commentA decent start that will no doubt evolve into a abusive finish, as with Twitter, it was good to Twit, it was the Twits that did it. Imagine Iphone connection to your MP’s during the expenses scandal revelation, the amount of stars and bleeps from the public
Would have been a nightmare for MP’s. and the anger has still not subdued especially at this time of great hardship for many, which is understandable.
I would prefer to see more human contact from MP’s within their constituencies, I know they are involved on many levels, however if you want to inspire more young people in politics then direct contact will have more of an impact that a machine could ever hope to achieve. MP’s, Artists, Entrepreneurs, Mentors and many more could take time out to give back their experience and share their knowledge within schools to nurture and inspire a new generation of collective citizenship for a common goal that removes the detachment that is so evident within our society. That in my view would be a decent start…technology should only support this aim not replace it…
Yorkshire Terrorist
February 9th, 2010 5:09pm Report this commentIf you actually download the app and have a look, it's clear that this could be quite a good idea - especially if MPs (or, more likely, their staff) are active in taking part in the discussions.
Wyatt was on Sky last night talking about this - it looks like he was so desperate to be first with it that he paid for it out of his own pocket, but like another commenter has pointed out, that's pretty consistent with how he has positioned himself in the tech/media world while an MP.
I actually hope it takes off. Obviously it needs to be extended to Android/Blackberry/Nokia et al to reach the largest audience, but everything has to start somewhere.
Beer Moth
February 9th, 2010 6:57pm Report this commentGreat. Just got to scrape together £349 now.
TomTom
February 10th, 2010 8:07am Report this commentGimmickry. MPs need to become Delegates and not "Representatives" because currently they are "Party Delegates" who do not represent Voters...so they should be Constituency Delegates rather than Party Delegates
Sean Haffey
February 10th, 2010 9:15am Report this commentThis is snide criticism from people who for whatever reason despise Apple. For one thing, the same app runs on the much cheaper Apple iPod: for another, it would be easy to make it work on other platforms. I applaud any MP who makes a genuine effort to be more accessible with his/her constituents.
NickW
February 10th, 2010 9:47am Report this commentThey could say,
Labour promised a referendum on Lisbon.
They broke that promise.
Labour promises are worthless.
But they can't say that can they; because it would make people look at Tory policy on the EU, which represents a cowardly retreat from what needed to be done.
I expect we will be forced to pay to bail out Greece, just as we go to the polls, which would make the campaign an interesting one.
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