Technology has continually changed the way we live. The train, the car, the internet: the list stretches throughout history.
Members of Parliament are not immune to technological advances changing the way we do our jobs. When I was first elected the main way constituents kept in touch was by good old Royal Mail. I well remember collecting three massive sacks of post from the Commons Post Office on my first visit there, just a few days after being elected. It was the introduction to the fifty letters that rolled in every day.
These days most contact comes via e-mails and although we do not count them, they come flooding in remorselessly. This technology has improved the connection between MP and electorate, giving more personal and immediate access. The standard e-mails generated by campaign groups are an unhelpful side of the story, but it is a small price to pay for the overall advantage.
The press also plays an important role. I have been hugely grateful to the South Hams Newspaper Group who have run this weekly column for nearly ten years, helping me to stay in touch with seventy five per cent of my constituents to who the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News is delivered free every week.
For newly elected MPs social media is becoming the main way to stay in touch with their flock, with some of them tweeting every few minutes and posting videos of themselves in action several times a week, if not more frequently. A weekly e-mail report is now not uncommon and a great way of staying in touch, together with Facebook Live. This all represents a massive change to how the job is done.
Technology is great if it helps us to do our job more effectively. However there are dangers. Some new MPs nowpublish by social media a series of stats about how many questions they ask etc. It is shaping how they do their job as an MP – asking facile questions not to gain advantage for constituents, but simply to “keep their stats up” and share them by social media. In other words, they are being driven by social media – it is becoming an end in itself rather than the means to an end. This is an unfortunate development and something that risks demeaning Parliament.
All technology has its drawbacks. We must watch carefully that the nation’s Parliament does not just become the backdrop to a tweet-fest.