Remove barriers to politics
Author: Richard Noon
What NEED does this meet?
Recent trends in voter apathy, views that parties are all the same, and growing gap between the politicians and their representitives are all having a negative impact on how constituents percieve their representitive parties.
I believe their is a gap…between those have an interest in politics, and those who dont. It is communicating with those who have no interest in politics which this solution would benefit.
What is the APPROACH?
The approach to this service is as follows:
a portal/newspaper style website, which would be regionalised, to serve each local constituency, and a ‘Grandfather’ site, which would provide information about national/international issues.
Through the use of RSS, Blogs and PLAIN ENGLISH, the site would appear unintrusive, welcoming and down to earth. With the use of headlines that are simple, and intuitive.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
Existence of such a site would allow people to access political news, and educate the public about how their country and local area is operated by the respective councils.
By being in a newspaper/portal format, it would be a well known and accepted format. mobile access, text alerts and regular email updates would keep constituents informed of updates, and the latest news in their local area and in the wider context of UK politics.
Access to this type of service would act as a ‘leg-up’ to help those who are uninterested in politics, allowing them to then access a wider range of resources to educate them and develop an interest in politics.
Currently, newspapers require some previous knowledge & awareness of current issues, and with their political bias, they may not offer the ‘complete’ story, and are placing barriers to entry which are simply too high for some socio-economical and age groups.
What is the COMPETITION?
Whilst all the major news channels offer ‘dummy’ guides, and simple explanations to the stories of the day, these stories need to be accessed in the first instance, in order for the uninterested user to view the ‘dummies guide’
I do not believe that there is anything which offers this service.
My idea must win out in order to bring politics ‘back to the people’, and encourage those who are often most affected by politics to get involved, and make a change.
What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?
I dont believe that the idea is all that difficult to develop, the use of RSS and Blogs would be a cost effective way of generating content for the site, and keeping it looking fresh and up to date.
There would need to be a marketing campaign, however this can easily be achieved through promoting the site address through media and through the political parties themselves.
Can you explain who will write the content for the articles?
Through promotion, local councillors, interested constituents, westminster politicians would provide blog-like journals.
Maybe a key sponsor..the two co-presenters on This Week..Micheal Portillo and Diane Abbott MP would be ideal for their straight talking, plain english nature which they ooze on the BBC “This Week” program.
That calibre of name would appeal to a wide cross section of constituents.
On the regional pages, contributions from local activists, local politicians and key figures could feature as a ‘This Month…’ item.
This would stimulate interest across a wide area.
Francis Irving has a point. You suggest that one of the current main forms of access to this information, Newspapers provide a political bias and only a partial perspective on issues which is spot on…I completley agree it would be great to hear unbiased views on issues.
So, the question of who writes the views arises.
If searching for unbiased, clear and holistic reviews of current issues “local councillors and Westminster Politicians” would be the last place to look! Any “interested constituent” is also likely to carry a political bias more often than not.
So we turn to the “straight-talking plain English” Michael Portillo and Diane Abott MP!! you are joking right?
Tell you what, why not try getting Turkeys to vote for Christmas instead!
The idea is sound in principle and exactly what is needed…but try finding someone without political bias to write an article on politics and you will struggle.
Another option may be to invite summary views on key issues from a range or perspectives, in this way the reader has all the information upon which to make their mind right there.