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To access links, see Steven Clift's blog: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=340 Post: UK MP says - Hitler would have loved e-petitioning! A bit of e-democracy backlash in the UK as some MPs feel less relevant. My challenge to representatives and their institutions - compete online for the attention and engagement of citizens or you will lose most of your power. You have to read this article (clip below): http://politics.guardian.co.uk/egovernment/story/0,,2029392,00.html I've started a space for discussion on our UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange: http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/605010 Steven Clift http://dowire.org A clip: E-petitions could undermine democracy, MPs warned Matthew Tempest, political correspondent Thursday March 8, 2007, Guardian Unlimited Online petitions like the 1.8m-strong one against road pricing risk undermining representative democracy, a committee of senior MPs warned today. ... Kelvin Hopkins, another Labour member of the committee, went further, saying such electronic petitions would have been "loved by dictators like Hitler". He warned that current day "populists of the right" could "whip up war fervour" with electronic petitions. And he said: "Dictators like Hitler would have loved the internet, sending out petitions asking what people think of the Jews and claiming he was communicating directly with the people - and then trace back the individuals who answered." And a Tory member of the committee, Charles Walker, accused representatives from the e-democracy community of being "patronising, manipulative and sinister" in advocating online consultations. He told them: "You are undermining the role of representative democracy and MPs' role within it. *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To comment/for links: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=340 To network: http://groups.dowire.org Submit posts: http://dowire.org/submit Member profile for Steven Clift: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/stevenclift ----------------------------------------- Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/newswire Replies go to members of Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/topic/605011 For digest version or to leave Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail, email [email protected] with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.
