YouthNet blog
An insight into youth issues, volunteering trends, charity life and more from the UK charity YouthNet
All | Events | Youth | Technology | Volunteering | YouthNet | Charity World
Wednesday Sep 13, 2006
David Miliband and the death of wiki
One of my regular moans is that politicians are, without exception, totally out of touch with the real world. I don't think they all are when they first enter politics (although some are), but after a year or two cocooned in the bizarre, sheltered world of Westminster, they start talking in strange ways and bit by bit, shed any personality and honesty they may have once hadIt's hardly surprising then that politicians are respected about as lowly as cockroaches and estate agents (OK, not quite as low as estate agents). Young people, in particular have no time for these self important men and women in suits and voting turn-out is depressingly low among this age group.
So what to do about it? At YouthNet, whenever given the chance, we tell politicians that they need to rethink the ways that they engage with the public. Come to where they are; talk in normal language, not wonk-speak, speak honestly and most importantly, LISTEN.
One of the ways they can do more of this is through the internet and other emerging technologies. We've had some good discussion on TheSite.org with politicians who have opened themselves up more than usual and we intend to do more of these sorts of things in the future. The politicians involved should be encouraged to do more.
And some are. David Miliband has been blogging for a few months and has even set up a wiki on the Defra website, asking the public to feed into the government's views on the environment (wikis are collaborative online documents which anyone can edit - more here). OK, so this is all toe-dipping rather than a big government dive into the New World, but it's a start.
Still, Miliband has been slated for it in some quarters, mainly because the consultation is too limited, too controlled - some of the comments and thoughts of the public have even been deleted. It's a tricky balance: if you open up and agree to consultation, you can't choose what comments you like or don't like. But doesn't some responsibility lie with the public to at least be civil? Respectful of the process?
Maybe not. Perhaps Miliband should take the rough with the smooth. The danger though, is if these consultation exercises get too heated or noisy, then the politicians will use this as an excuse to retreat back in to their ivory towers, relying just on managed focus groups for their public involvement. Which is hardly a big conversation, whatever way you spin it. Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 8:41 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Comments:
Post a Comment:
