How much power DOES social media have politically?

Lately I have been struggling to convey just how vital I think the surge in social media as a political movement is.

It is democracy in it's purest sense. If enough people feel strongly about something, they are joining together to discuss, plan and take action.

We've seen the enormous pressure that Lansley has faced over his NHS reforms after staggering public reaction online. I don't believe it is a coincidence that Dr Evan Harris, Lib (@DrEvanHarris), the champion of this opposition is also one of the most active and engaged MPs on twitter.

We've seen how groups like the Broken of Britain have shaped the questions asked in parliament through their forensic research and skill in building active supporters through various social media.

We've seen the u-turn on forests following a vast swell of support for the 38 Degrees campaign. The online petition attracted over half a million signatures.

Around the world, we've seen those living in fear under oppressive regimes tweet information they could never have shared with us before. By building support online, many went on to organise protests that involved 100,000s of people in hours.

In the last few days, we've just seen how twitter and Facebook and prominent blogs like Liberal Conspiracy have played a part in forcing major multinational advertisers to pull their support from the News of the World over the phone hacking scandal.

How many of these victories social media can truly claim may be debatable, but what is unquestionable, is that politics seems to be changing almost daily. I don't think politicians are keeping up with the speed, passion and commitment of the social media phenomenon.

After the helplessness and frustration of Iraq and MPs expenses, we were promised a "New Politics" but we were let down spectacularly. The coalition that seemed to offer so much hope gave us VAT rises and tuition fees and tried to privatise our NHS For many, it seems to have been a disappointment too far. People seem determined to make their own "New Politics" and are increasingly leading the way where they feel politicians or media are failing.

When the US stormed Osama Bin Laden's compound, an entirely un-knowing IT consultant (@ReallyVirtual ) tweeted the event live and now has over 90,000 followers.

Tonight, at 9pm, someone claiming to be an ex-News of the World journalist (@ExNOTWJourno) says that he will be releasing a press statement along with 16 other ex-employees of News International. If it is genuine, they will be shaping their own news, uncensored in front of the entire world. He already has over 14,000 followers on twitter.

There has never been a time when ordinary people had this kind of power and I find it thrilling, but it makes me nervous too. I watch Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband suggesting "enquiries" that will undoubtedly take years to come to any conclusion and am more and more convinced that social media will know most of what transpires within months if not weeks. The world has changed and increasingly our established society seems to be left behind.

To ensure that social media does not become the new vigilante, I believe more strongly every day that politicians need to entirely rethink the way parliament and politics works. I think they need to engage as never before and quickly.

What is becoming clearer by the day is that for the first time, both groups have power. At least to some degree.

No Ifs, No Buts Mr Laws, Benefit Fraud is a Crime

Having been found guilty of 6 breaches of Commons Rules and suspended for 7 days, David Laws is back!

"Mr Laws resigned after just 17 days as a cabinet minister, following reports he had claimed about £40,000 to pay rent to his partner, the lobbyist James Lundie. Such payments have been against parliamentary rules since 2006.....a long investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner had discovered other breaches relating to phone bills and building work."

"A parliamentary committee ruled in May he should apologise to the House of Commons and be suspended for seven days. The suspension began on 7 June."

Nonetheless, he was the economic glue that binds the coalition. The hard-line right-wing Lib Dem who It was thought could bridge the gap between the Osbornes and the Vinces. Without him we got.... well, Danny Alexander and it hasn't been pretty has it?

It's been clear from the first whiff of scandal that the Condems wanted him back and would bring him back as soon as they thought they could get away with it,

"Only a few months ago, David Cameron was expressing impatience at the time the commissioner was taking with his inquiry because he was keen to see Mr Laws back in Government"

but less than a month after his suspension expired? Quietly appearing in the House of Commons in the midst of a huge media scandal that's keeping everyone too busy to notice?

He cheated. He committed benefit fraud.

In fact, the DWP would call him a benefit thief

They are very clear on the matter :

"Deliberately withholding information that affects your claim is stealing. That’s why we are targeting benefit thieves! Those who steal benefits are picking the pockets of law-abiding taxpayers." 

Yet again, we have one rule for them, but entirely another for everyone else. Every time I see Mr Laws sitting in the HoC I will remember that he is a cheat. He was found guilty. But it didn't matter. After all the expenses scandals, after the promises that it would all change, after all that LibDem drivel about a "New Politics" we have to swallow yet another huge hypocrisy pill from politicians. 

And they wonder why no-one likes them, hardly anyone goes out to vote for them and no-one trusts them. 

They've got away with this systemic corruption for so long, they think they always will. "Oh, don't worry, the sheeple won't remember, the sheeple won't care"

I'm not actually sure they have much longer. Lip service will no longer do and too many more of these decisions might bring the whole stinking house of cards tumbling down. Hopefully they'll land on Rupert Murdoch.

 

Girl Talk - Spoonie Style Snippets

Girl Talk – Spoonie Style Snippets

By Kaliya Franklin and Sue Marsh

“How’s it going then, is he lovely?”

“Yeah, very”

“And did you manage the sex ok, not too many dislocations?”

“Yes - plenty. But it didn’t get in the way, which says a lot about him”

 “Excellent” 

“What are we going to wear for this posh London conference?”

“I dunno – something smart that won’t show the marks if poo my pants. What about you?”

“I dunno – something smart that won’t flash my knickers to the whole room if I dislocate my hips”

“Sweat pants and trainers then?”

“Yeah – do you think they make them in the style of a suit?”

“They must do - the jegging version of workwear”

“That’ll work…and hey, we’re not well anyway. They’ll expect us to be in our pyjamas”

“How did you know he was the right man for you?”

“ I tried to hide my condition from him, but he insisted if we were going to be together he had to know”

“Aww. He’s such a sweetheart”

“Yep. A couple of months after we got together I was really sick and in hospital. He slept outside in a camper van for weeks taking shifts with my dad while they both worked full time just so they could make sure I didn’t die of malnutrition in hospital.”

“Wow. No wonder you decided he’s a keeper!”

“I got dragoned by the receptionist”

“Didn’t you tell them the doctor put a note onto the screen so that this situation wouldn’t happen?”

“Yes, she just wouldn’t listen to me. Said it won’t be til 5pm and that’s that”

“That’s awful”

“Why, why does pain never matter ?  What if at 5pm I phone and he hasn’t written the prescription. It’s Friday. I’m living in fear now for the next 6 hours hoping that some benevolent doctor will put me out of my misery for the weekend.”

“That’s if the doctor even knows you need a script, did the receptionist say she’d pass it on?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t really listen to anything I said. I feel totally helpless now. I hate it when they do this. It’s really hard cos it’s a new surgery. I’m scared they’ll think I’m a rabid drug seeker and write me off. I’m just so scared now. I’m usually such a feisty chick and Dave’s role is to reel me in. But I so fall apart in these situations I just can’t deal with it and he has to. Because he hasn’t got the terror you see. There’s nothing you can do to keep the plea out of your voice, you can’t be the person you usually are because they hold your life in their hands completely. He can use logic and sense; I just get paralysed by fear like a little rabbit in the headlights.”

“What happened last night love, are you ok?”

“Yeah. It was steroid rage. They quadrupled my dosage and even Ghandi would get mood swings on that high a dose of steroids.”

“Any my face looks like a football, it’s not me when I look in the mirror and I hate it”

“You are down aren’t you love?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing worse than this for me. If that receptionist had just said ‘no problems sweetheart I’ll make sure he does it, I would’ve been ok’. But now I feel like I’m undeserving and worthless”

“I’m so happy. I’ve got an outside tap. I know I’m sad, but really it’s the most exciting thing that’s happened in weeks”

“Did your landlord sort out the other issues”

“Yes! I’ve got a spacker plug for my sink. I’m so happy. I’ve been here nearly a year and now I can use the sink”

“I reckon the new government tactic on dumbing down our protests will be to make sure we both end up in the support group so we’ve got nothing to complain about”

“It’ll be like, ‘hey look everyone, the system does work fine, we were wrong, woops, sorry’”

“Yeah. That’d be good.”

“ Ain’t gonna happen though is it, you have to present your death certificate at the WCA to go in the support group"

“I actually managed to do some housework this week”

“Wow, that’s good. Well done”

“My bedroom’s still knee deep in clothes and my oven still has a year’s worth of pizza crust to scrape up. But hey, I washed up and at least it’s made me feel a bit less panicky that my entire life’s falling around my ears”

“Don’t worry love. There’s still bits of chilli plastered to my wine rack from chilligeddon”

“By time I left my old surgery I was really good friends with the receptionists and the pharmacists and that’s half the battle. Because if they don’t want to help me and trust my judgement it doesn’t happen. Sometimes even the pharmacists would go through to the doctor, they never judged me for using pethidine. But I haven’t got that trust at my new surgery yet. I haven’t shown them I can be trusted, that I don’t drug seek, that I won’t lose my prescriptions or do anything that makes them even think I might be drug seeking.”

“ Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m so fortunate that my GP keeps me set up for pain relief at home so I never have to go to A&E for pain. And the receptionists know my voice on the phone so they always ensure I get seen or prescribed for that day”

“How’re the kids doing at the moment?”

“6 yr old told me I needed to put on a tiny bit of weight. And then he said, not so you’ve got a tummy like daddies, but just so you don’t get so poorly mummy.  I told him, but darling, that’s kind of what Crohn’s is. Even when mummy eats a lot and you do see mummy eat lots don’t you. My tummy doesn’t get all the vitamins yours does, that’s why mummy gets to eat so many cakes but won’t let you”

“I got interviewed the other day about political aspirations”

*laughs*

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you. But the thought of a spoonie with political aspirations. I mean the whole system’s against it. Remember our quadruple SpAd job share idea? We decided in equality terms it would take 4 spoonies for every Oxbridge SpAd. “

“And that’s before we even get on to the skeletons in our closets just from leading vaguely normal lives, there’s no way I could be an MP. “

“But…if you’ve got no skeletons in your closet you’re too weird to be a politician anyway”

“Yeah. Shame it’s not Italy where the more rakish you are the more successful you become in politics”

“Definitely. We could cover rakish. It’s just the fit for work bit we’re not so hot on”

“So what’s on the to-do list then?”

“Oh you know, the usual. Bringing down the government, radio shows, articles to write, threats of suicide emails to answer.”

“Then there’s that speech to write.”

“Which speech is that again?”

“The one for parliament that we’ve been planning for three weeks. Remember? The one we spent a whole day writing and at the end of it you asked me what it was about.”

“Oh yeah. What is it about then?”

“I can’t remember. Too much pain… Think I’d better go sit in a corner and rock”

“Yeah, deathwalk time. Then I’m gonna sit in a corner and rock too”

“Bye love”

"Me again! Lovely doctor just phoned me, asked how I was. Said she'd chase up my new chemo drugs and left a pain prescription at reception for me. Panic over"

"Yeay. Happy Ending!"

"Bye"