I asked the Prime Minister about account... I have mixed feelings about the Big Society. I’m all for devolution and more decision making power for communities, but I worry that the coalition’s plans will see local accountability suffer as more and more public services are provided by charities,  private companies and social enterprises...

The best route for Clegg is to get tough... What Nick Clegg needs to do now is be tough with the Conservatives. They are on the back foot and desperate to get into power but Clegg holds the keys. Let’s face it, they’ll be no LibLab coalition – they just don’t have the electoral mandate. They’d need too much support...

Why I’ll be voting Liberal Democra... This time tomorrow I will have marked my ballot paper with a big solid X alongside the Liberal Democrat candidate for Lichfield, Ian Jackson. Let’s put this vote in context first of all. In Lichfield, we’ve had Michael Fabricant as our MP since the constituency was re-established in 1997...

Michael Fabricant’s tweets: policy... Many of my Twitter followers have today seen my passionate side as I exchanged tweets with Michael Fabricant over his use of the social networking site. He’s a little unfortunate in that he’s the only one of Lichfield’s four candidates to be active on Twitter. Labour candidate Steve...

My comments on the POWER 2010 Pledge... I’ve just signed up the POWER 2010 Pledge, having voted on the specific issues I feel are important to me. It is not a requirement that you agree with all of the 5 priorities voted for as the most important by the majority of those who have participated, but just that you agree with the majority. I...

WriteToThem.com Wordpress plugin... As if the TheyWorkForYou.com plugin wasn’t enough I’ve also created a plugin for WriteToThem.com as well! The plugin adds a new widget which your blog readers can use to get in touch with their politicians from councillors to MEPs. There’s a demo video and instructions on how to set...

TheyWorkForYou.com Wordpress plugin... As part of some work for Talk About Local I have just developed a Wordpress plugin using the TheyWorkForYou.com API. For this first version the plugin creates a single widget which shows the latest activity for your MP. I hope to add more in the future and if you have any suggestions, please add them...

My (disappointing) correspondence with M... With today’s announcement of the Digital Economy Bill containing the dreaded three strikes policy I thought I’d share my disappointing correspondence with Michael Cashman MEP. I first wrote to him with; Dear Michael Cashman, I’m biased as my career is based entirely on the web, but...

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Why... This week, David Cameron announced that he is prepared to impose all-women shortlists for the next general election. The Labour Party has already used all-women shortlists and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said he would consider introducing them if the number of women MPs in his party didn’t...

A short note for Mr Stott before he come... There’s plenty of discussion going on in Government about putting data out and what to put out and how to put it out and all that nonsense. Especially in local government. It sounds like there’s concern that releasing data isn’t good enough and that government has a responsibility to...