Simon who?

Westminster’s online movers and shakers were left stymied when asked about Simon Cowell’s plans to X-Factorise politics last night.

There were blank faces all round as the panel of experts at Demos’s “Is the internet really changing politics?” event seemed to shrug “Simon Who?” in response to a question on Cowell’s widely publicised ideas to re-enfranchise the public.

Former Minister for Digital Engagement Tom Watson and the Tories’ Head of New Media Rishi Saha – both of whom have been tasked with getting more people involved in politics – hadn’t a clue about the planned programme, which would involve instant red-button reaction and text votes on a range of big issues with a hotline to number 10.

Outlining his proposals in an interview with the BBC, Cowell had said:

“If you went around the country now there would be five or six big big issues which i think are really really important in people’s lives.

There could be some kind of referendum-type TV show where you can speak on both sides and then open it up to the public to get an instant poll as to how they feel on the hot topics, that kind of show would interest me.

“It’s the sort of thing I’d like to watch beacuse now there are so many really, really, really hot topics and I think, well, for instance, should we or should we [sic] be in Iraq and Afghanistan? If you actually asked most people in the country why are we there, I, I couldn’t even tell you.

“I’m not sure why we’re there. I knew why we were in the falklands, I don’t know why we’re there.”

One might suggest that, if it ever came to pass, he’d probably have to amend a few of his famous put downs.

This article was originally published on Left Foot Forward; you can read my full report on the event in the next issue of Anticipations

Offline and online, blog launch a success

On the evening of the state opening of parliament, the Young Fabians saw the long-awaited official opening of this blog. The launch last night went successfully with YF members and others engaging both online and offline. John Wood from the TUC‘s Touchstone blog, Progress‘ Jessica Asato, and LabourList Editor, Alex Smith, joined our panel discussion in the House of Commons, whilst there was tweeting-a-plenty using #yfblog.

From the Webbs to the Web set out to look at the potential in the web for sharing ideas and developing policy in the twenty-first century. We heard about the good – Alex Smith: ”It’s no longer the case that the right are streets ahead online; in fact the reverse is now true.” – and the bad – Jessica Asato told us that a clear majority of posts as well as 90% of the left wing blog rolls are made up by men. 

It was agreed that events like the one taking place remained important and that online politics can’t exist alone - and in a sign of old and new together, tweeting even stopped for a brief period of Chatham House rules discussion. (This wasn’t the only example of the power of new media combining with old media today.)

There was consensus that wiki-policy-making – blank page policy built up in the same way the wikipedia website is - should be given a go. It was suggested that both men and women need to change the space in an antagonistic and personal blogosphere if they truly believe in equality and social justice. And we heard the proposal, nay request, from Jessica Asato for an online policy aggregator to be put together, allowing anyone to search by word or phrase and be a mouseclick away from every think tank’s ideas.

Some good comments came from the floor, including a discussion of what makes a good blog post. The words short, dirty, measured and thoughtful came up. I suspect this one achieves very few, if any, of those four …

An old-fashioned meeting, some very modern tweeting, and a new blog for YF members. The guest posts on the blog will continue for the remainder of the week including blogging Labour MP, Tom Harris. We hope you’re enjoying it and will soon take part – watch this space for details of how the next stage of YF policy development will move online. All-in-all, progress.

Next up, avatars of the YF Executive … (that’s a joke by the way for anyone still considering standing for co-option this weekend)

Reminder – blog launch event this week

‘From the Webbs to the Web’ will ask how we can best utilise the online world to develop policy and share ideas. Beatrice and Sidney Webb, founding members of the Fabian Society, could not have imagined the electronic resources we now have. But how can the Young Fabians seize the opportunity technology has presented us? Is wiki-policy and collaborative policy-making the future or is the web simply about tweeting to mobilise campaigners?

Speakers include: Jessica Asato, Acting Director, Progress; John Wood, TUC’s Touchstone blog; Alex Smith, Editor, LabourList.

The event will take place on Wednesday 18^th November, 6.15pm for 6.30pm – 8pm in Committee Room 6 of the House of Commons. Please email Adrian Prandle to reserve a place: aprandle@youngfabians.org.uk.

See the YF website for details of how to participate in the launch if you can’t make the event.

Follow us at twitter.com/youngfabians.