The 2010 general election is set to become the first in the social-networking era. Cast your mind back to 2005. Do you remember Facebook or Twitter? Of course not – they didn’t exist yet!
During the upcoming general election, candidates will continue to stand at the school gates, knock on doors and hit the high streets but this time around they will have even more ways to communicate with us ordinary citizens. Yes, they had websites and email to play with in 2005 but now the online world will play a much bigger role and we will have access to prospective parliamentary candidates in a way we never have before.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been posting opportunities to put questions to politicians via webchats and online forums and now we have yet another opportunity to directly grill an MP.
Next Thursday, 11th February 2010, George Osborne the Conservative Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer will be answering questions on his plans for the economy in a live webcast. The great thing is that these questions will have been submitted and voted for by people like you via a google moderator page. The highest rated questions will get put to Mr Osborne.
We came across a fantastic question by Harriett in Shrewsbury about a suggested financial transaction tax on banks. Sign in and vote on this question now so that we can ensure it is asked of Mr Osborne or feel free to submit your own. The deadline for submissions and voting is Thursday, 11th February at noon.
Let’s continue to take advantage of the access to politicians that the web gives us. If you happen to come across any live webchats or online forums with local or national MPs or prospective parliamentary candidates, let me know by email [email protected] or direct message me via OxfamMidlands on twitter and I can spread the word!