New.Journalism.Review

Tory right-wing MP, Dominic Raab, has had a busy summer emailing out Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

Raab’s most recent target has been the police, or to be precise, the Police Federation. Raab believes the body, which was founded in 1919 by the government, spends too much money representing its members rather than fighting crime. So Raab sent out a few FOI requests to prove his theory.

The result? This article in the Daily Mail:

“Police have claimed they will be left with 16,000 fewer officers because of a shortage of funding. Yet according to Freedom of Information requests by Tory MP Dominic Raab, they are forking out £4,801,817 on paying for union activities. There are at least 99 police working full-time for organisations such as the Police Federation, which has crossed swords repeatedly with ministers in recent months.”

But there is one problem – the Police Federation isn’t a union and the police can’t go on strike. Part way through the Mail’s article we discover, “The Police Federation, which is technically classified as a federation rather than a union”…(the clue was in the name!) So what’s this about ‘union’ activity?  The Federation is no radical left-wing RMT, yet someone seems to be trading on confusion.

Raab is wondering if ‘union’ work is a good use of police time? And a good use of an MPs time is bombarding police forces with FOI requests, right? Raab has to remember he is an MP and not a journalist for the Daily Mail. In fact some of his constituents would prefer that he spends more time representing their concerns rather than promoting his own Thatcherite views in the press and undermining hard-working police men and women.

Raab hates unions though…just try getting him to say the words “European Union” and, as any TV cop would say, he has ‘form’ in this area. He tried exactly the same trick in a bid to ‘expose’ union activity at Revenue and Customs back in July, which received massive publicity in the Express. Perhaps someone from Surrey Police will kindly arrest Raab for wasting all our time.

Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028679/Hundreds-police-paid-7-million-union-work-instead-keeping-streets-safe.html#ixzz1VyGmUDdN

Police Federation highlight Raab’s errors

The Hansard Society is an important organisation which promotes political participation.

It states: ‘Civic society is most effective when its citizens are connected with the institutions and individuals who represent them in the democratic process… There has never been more urgency for Parliament to engage with the public.’

It is clear that blogs, Twitter and Facebook can be used to enhance political participation and civic engagement. And there are plenty of ‘honourable’ examples of MPs (see what I did there) who have created blogs that are not only popular, but are important tools in allowing citizens to communicate and engage in politics.

Comments, yes please…

Regular blogger Lynne Featherstone, a Lib Dem who recently voted to triple tuition fees, has been provoking a lot of comments online. She produces a ‘popular’ blog (if being ‘popular’ is defined as being hated by a large section of your constituency) and some of her posts have well over 100 comments beneath. But fair play to her, even the most critical comments (and there are a lot) appear quickly on the site, once they have been moderated.

Lynne comes in at respectable no.8  in the Total Politics Top 30 MPs Blogs.

Another example of good blogging is that carried out by Labour MP, Tom Watson. Described as:  ‘A politician who has acquired far more prominence as a blogger and tweeter than he did as a minister.’ (Steve Richards, The Independent, 16th Dec).

Shhh! Don’t disturb the ‘Quiet Man’ of blogging

Unfortunately, there are those who get it completely wrong – such as Conservative MP, Dominic Raab. Who? That’s Dominic Raab, MP for Esher and Walton. This MP has as much prominence in the blogesphere as he does on the backbench in Westminster (almost zero). Yes, we know how many times you speak-up in Parliament. They Work For You.com tells us!

This right-winger gives IDS a run for his money when it comes to the title of ‘Quiet Man’ of politics. The silence on Raab’s blog is deafening.

It seems Raab doesn’t want any of his constituents commenting on his blog at all. Oddly, he states his policy ‘is to publish all comments, unless abusive or anonymous’. So why haven’t more people posted comments? Are they all abusive? Almost none appear… just contrast Raab’s blog with Featherstone’s.

Forgive me for speculating, but perhaps it is because he filters out those comments that he just doesn’t like. Just a thought. (We’ve… ahem…done a few tests!).

Should we be surprised? Probably not.  In August, Quiet Man  told the political site, 38 Degrees, – a site that embodies the principles of the Hansard Society – to REMOVE  his contact details from its very useful ‘Contact Your MP’ system.

Apparently,Quiet Man Raab was being awoken with messages from his constituents about REALLY IMPORTANT ISSUES THAT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT! However, Raab had to come clean when it was revealed that  he was getting an average of just TWO emails a day through  ‘Contact Your MP’.