As our MPs suffered the indignity of their outgoings being revealed day by day over the last few weeks, The Daily Telegraph showed us that newspapers are still a force to be reckoned with. The broadsheet drip-fed the story masterfully, boosting sales and its own brand.
The number of Google searches for ‘Daily Telegraph' has doubled since the story broke, while searches for rival broadsheets have declined slightly.
It has been a triumph for good old-fashioned journalism, and one the web could probably never have found the funds to deliver. The long-term effects on Parliament, democracy and transparency are yet to be measured; but where a newspaper provided the spark, the web is likely to be the fuel that feeds the fire.
Politicians have leapt at what they see as an opportunity to communicate directly with voters, avoiding the intermediation of the fourth estate. Blogs, YouTube videos and Twitter have all become grist to the mill for politicos keen to reach out and support their own agendas.
So, as more of our elected representatives opt to avoid the media, many observers are concerned that declining sales could further diminish the cherished role of the press as 'independent monitor of power'.
Yet, just as the web has given consumers knowledge about brands, their quality, reliability and pricing, so it has stimulated the same emerging dynamic around politics.
MySociety.org is a UK charity that has set out to ‘build websites that give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives'.
From this straightforward objective, the organisation runs several sites that are transforming transparency in politics; enabling voters to see what their representatives get up to - to hear them, talk to them and track their performance.
According to Tom Steinberg, the site's director, just 40% of Britons know who their MP is. At Writetothem.com, users can enter their postcode to receive a list of their local MP, MEPs, London Assembly members and councillors, as well as a form to write to any of them. The House of Lords is not directly representative, so the site offers a search by interest or location to find a relevant peer, with a ‘random Lord' button for users who are unable to decide.
Most people do not have a burning issue they want to tell their MP about - they would rather find out what theirs stands for. TheyWorkForYou.com gives voters a picture of their MP's contribution to Parliament. My MP, Ann Keen, I discover, has spoken in 31 debates in the past year, voted ‘moderately against' a transparent Parliament and ‘strongly for' ID cards. Last year, she claimed the third-highest staffing allowance in Parliament, but ranked 161st for her expenditure on computer equipment.
I can sign up to be emailed whenever she speaks in Parliament and, using HearFromYourMP.com, I can opt to receive emails from her. But woe betide any MP who thinks they can use it to spam voters. Each message is posted on the website, and constituents can post their own comments next to it - a popular pastime at the moment.
Organisations such as MySociety.org are using the web to bring transparency and engagement in politics to a new level. It is not seeking the after-the-fact exposé, but to discourage impropriety from the start. This is the real benefit, and the real opportunity: to throw open the windows and let the air in, making openness a way of life rather than something that is both perceived and used as a threat.
Andrew Walmsley is co-founder of i-level
30 seconds on Ann Keen, MP
- Ann Keen is a Labour MP representing Brentford and Isleworth. She has held her seat since defeating the conservative incumbent, Nirj Deva, in 1997.
- Keen is parliamentary undersecretary for health services at the Department of Health.
- Before going into politics, she was a tutor nurse and district nurse at West Middlesex Hospital. Keen also served as head of the advanced nursing faculty at Queen Charlotte's College, in Hammersmith, from 1989-93.
- Her husband, Alan Keen, is also a Labour MP, representing Feltham and Heston. They married in 1980.
- Charity CancerBACUP named Keen Public Figure of the Year in 1999 for her ovarian cancer campaign.
- In April it was discovered that she had the highest expense claims of any minister, excluding travel costs, having claimed £167,306 for the past financial year.
- With her husband, Keen claimed £38,193 for second-home costs last year. The couple lived in Brentford.