Speaking in a personal capacity, Matthew Taylor, the PM's outgoing chief strategy adviser, has talked of the internet fuelling a "crisis" in politics.  We are unconstrained in our demands of the government, and juvenile in our wish for apparently contradictory policy goals.  We lambast politicians for being corrupt and useless.  We enjoy identifying problems, without ever having to solve them.  None of this is new, and it's simply wrong to blame the internet for these alleged failings of our society.  

Political activity on the internet is filling a gap.  It's a gap that isn't filled by traditional media.  It's also a gap that isn't satisfied by traditional party political discourse.  One of the reasons why I blog on politics is because I find official Labour Party meetings moribund and almost totally ineffective in terms of influencing policy.  I feel my comments are worth more on the net than they are at a branch meeting.  Political blogging frees people to make their views known without the constrictions of party processes.  Perhaps that's why they're not appreciated by Mr Taylor and others.

Like Mr Taylor, I think that the government have at least tried to start political engagement through the web.  Some of it has been good, some bad.  We should encourage more, both from the government and individual politicians.  

Politics on the net is new and needs to mature, I agree.  There's a lot of rubbish and negativity too.  But we shouldn't patronize the British public by assuming they can't tell the difference between a positive and well-argued political point and a stream of bilious bigotry.  

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