anthony galvin

This post originally appeared on the Altogether Digital blog.

The economy is in crisis and the government announces its latest budget in an attempt to try and dig the country out of the deep economic hole that it is currently in. Whichever side of the political divide you’re on this is clearly serious stuff.

I’m certainly no economist, so last night I tuned into Channel4 news for some serious analysis of what’s going on. There was a panel of experts and politicians from across the spectrum discussing the political and economic fallout from the budget. Mid-debate something strange happens; Jon Snow interrupts and they cut over to Krishnan Guru-Murthy who’s sat in front of a PC reading out detailed economic analysis (in 140 characters or fewer) from random people on Twitter.

Now these people aren’t actually random. They’ve tagged their tweets with #c4budget, as @krishgm has asked them to do throughout the day. But I don’t know who they are and have no idea whether they know any more about the economics than Vince Cable or Mickey Mouse.

I’m a big fan of Twitter, it’s brilliant for lot’s of things but detailed economic analysis isn’t really it’s strength. But it’s easy to see the attraction for the ITN news team, who produce Channel4 news:

However, there’s a bigger issue here. I’m watching Channel4 news because it can do something that I can’t: get leading politicians and experts in a room and hold a debate on the budget. Searching twitter for #budget is something I can do in a matter of seconds. We don’t really need to have a publicly owned (and theoretically public service) TV station paying someone to read out tweets on air. It’s a bit like getting Simon Schama to Google the year Henry VIII was born.

But of course with media companies around the globe struggling to find new business models that will continue pay for all of these annoyingly expensive journalists, this could well be a depressing foretaste of what’s to come.

Not that I’m taking all or any of the credit for this but the government backed down on introducing legislation that would allow MPs to suppress the details of their expense claims:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/21/mps-expenses

FOR THE ATTENTION OF:
Nick Raynsford MP, Greenwich and Woolwich

Dear Nick Raynsford,

I am writing to you to express my concern about the contents of the draft Freedom of Information (Parliament) Order. 

One of the key aspects of democracy is the ability of the electorate to hold it’s representatives to account. There are many ways to do this, such as looking at how MPs vote and the things they say in public. In recent times the register of members interests and MPs expenses have become a valuable tool in ensuring that parliament and parliamentarians continue to serve the interests of the people it seeks to represent.

Where public organisations choose to be less open and restrict access to information there is always the risk that a small number of people will seek to exploit this secrecy for their own gain. If this was to happen in relation to MPs expenses, not only would the hard earned tax revenue of ordinary working people be wasted, but also the important covenant of trust between MP and electorate be fundamentally damaged. 

Yesterday in his inauguration speech Barack Obama eloquently expressed the importance of trust and transparency between public and polity: “And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

Therefore I’m urging you to continue to represent the best interests of the people of Greenwich and Woolwich by voting against the draft Freedom of Information (Parliament) Order. 

Yours sincerely,

Anthony Galvin

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Find out more about MPs concealing their expenses.