Time for a Break?

A question which can apply at many levels.

Today Britain takes a break from the European Union. I hope it won't be a long one.

But the break I propose to address this evening (when I wrote this), is whether it is time to take a break from "the News". I have been a compulsive news consumer for as long as I can remember. Whether it was newspapers; radio & TV news from the 1970s onwards - through to the era of rolling news, and the explosion of access to news (and some that don't deserve being called that) sites. As of the 1st January this year I had subscriptions to The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (France), Washington Post (USA) and China Daily (China). I also took news via alerts on my iPhone & iPad from all of those and others - as well as being signed up for emails from Roll Call; The Hill; the House of Commons Library; and as a result of being the Labour Party Candidate for Buckingham during the recent General Election, I still receive all the news from the Labour Party Press Office including Overnight Media & Broadcast briefs on a daily basis. I have also been a frequent user of twitter.

Enough is surely enough?

I've been cutting down - I'm so disillusioned by the News and Current Affairs output of BBC TV & Radio, that I no longer listen. I'm running my subscriptions to newspapers down - and unsubscribing from alerts and emails - and rarely look at Twitter.

Is that going too far?

Whilst down in London recently (one of the British Museum visits) I popped into Foyles and purchased a book called "STOP READING THE NEWS" by Rolf Dobelli. It really is a good read - with some very sensible points. It is subtitled "A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life', I would thoroughly recommend it to you.



Its contents include
- How I gave up the News (did I mention it was a signed copy?)
- News is to the Mind What Sugar is to the Body
- Radical Abstinence
- The Thirty-Day Plan
- The Soft Option
- News is |rrelevant
- News gets Risk Assessment All Wrong
- News is a Waste of Time
- News Obscures the Big Picture
- News is Toxic to Your Body
- News Confirms Our Mistakes.....
...
- News Encourages Terrorism
- News Destroys Our Peace of Mind

Dobelli also deals with potential objections to his argument, including 'What About Democracy'

In my view he makes some very good points. Do read it yourself!

I've been reflecting on what he says, and how I feel about some of the news and certain news organisations (and last night went to see the excellent film, "Bombshell" (French Title - "Scandale") about Fox News - part of the truly awful Murdoch Empire) - and came to the following conclusions -

I will "stop reading the News" - that doesn't mean that I won't be keeping myself informed about what is going on in the world. But instead of "consuming news", I'll be harvesting information about issues that matter to me. (Spoiler alert - Education, The Environment, Transport, Health (particularly avoidable illnesses)

There are a number of sources - I will still use (for the time being) the Daily editions of Le Monde, China Daily & the Washington Post - but only look at the in-depth pieces about issues. I'll still dip into France 24, Euronews, CGTN & CNN for in depth stories - but will make more use of the House of Commons Library, and regularly visit the websites of the British Parliament, the French Parliament, US Congress, the National People's Congress of China - and the Executive websites for those countries.

I'll still be making notes on the issues - what they are, and how different countries or International bodies are seeking to tackle them.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions - you can post them here - or send to MorganBuckinghamLabour@mail.com (I might as well recycle the email account I used during the election - but just for Washminster responses.

Thankyou.

The Washminster Blog during April, May & Early June

The pace of posts may drop in the coming few weeks. There's a General Election on in the UK - and that means I have less time to research and post, and to comment on events here in the UK, France, the EU and the USA

 - but do subscribe, or return occasionally - 

I hope to get some posts published in the weeks ahead.

For students facing exams (particularly on the Open University's W201 course - but I also have advice and information that may be useful, for law and political science students, as well as anyone facing exams) - I will be continuing to post on revision topics.

My "Washminster" posts are aimed at anyone interested in the workings of legislatures, politics generally - and have in the past covered specific elections - not to seek to encourage people to vote in a particular way. However my knowledge and experience comes from a rather long time being actively involved in British, European and US politics.

So if you want to see what happens in elections, and can put up with my partisanship - then you are welcome to follow me on:

 FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/jdavidmorgan

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Jdm_progressive

Unlike the 2001 and 2005 General Elections, or the 2009 European Parliament Elections - and various local government elections - I will not be standing as a candidate myself.

I will however be encouraging all progressives to back pro-EU candidates standing in parliamentary constituencies where they have the best chance of defeating the Conservative hard or passive Brexit supporters (which I think is everyone but Kenneth Clarke).

A guide to voting effectively can be found here - https://www.tactical2017.com - the spreadsheet is based on is available here.

Parliamentary Twitter Atlas

Information is power - and knowing what is going on around Westminster can be the key to getting on - whether you work in "the Palace" or outside.

So this atlas - as well as being fun - is useful if you use twitter to know what is going on in the world. (click on the picture for all the detail)

Of course - other twitters accounts to follow include my own @washminsterparl (and if you lean progressively - @jdm_progressive)

Twitter

Some people give twitter a bad name. They feel compelled to tell the world every minor detail of their life (as if we could care less!). However don’t let that put you off – twitter can be a useful tool for keeping up to date with news. Long before I started sharing my opinions (actually not too long – after all, I’ve been involved in politics since I was a teenager – and the sort of person who has stood for councils; Parliament and the European Parliament, is rarely slow to share their “insights/prejudices etc” with everyone else!!!!) I used Twitter to gather information.

The first step, if you haven’t done so already, is to set up a twitter account. Then “follow” the tweets of those that will provide the information. Use the search facility on the right hand side of the top of the screen.

I follow

For UK

o UK Parliament
o House of Lords
o Hansard Society
o BBCWestminHour
o BBC Parliament/DL
o PA Westminster
o HuffPostUKPolitics
o BBC Radio 4 Today
o DailySunday Politics (BBC)
o Sky News
o Guardian Politics
o Laura Kuenssberg (ITV)
o Carolyn Quinn (BBC)
o Norman Smith (BBC)
o Sean Curran (BBC)
o Toby Helm (Observer)
o Andrew Sparrow (Guardian)
o Ann Treneman (Times)
o Alex_Stevenson (politics.co.uk)
o Jon Snow

For USA

o Roll Call
o The Hill
o Politico
o National Journal
o Slate
o Nancy Pelosi (House Minority Leader)
o Steny Hoyer (House Minority Whip)
o Senator Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader)

For France

o Le Monde
o Francois Hollande
o Axelle Lemaire (Depute in Assemblee nationale representing Europe du Nord)
o Parti Socialiste

For the European Union

o European Voice
o European Parliament

Labour Party Conference

This weekend the Party leadership, MPs & Peers, delegates and other party members will be meeting in Liverpool for the annual Labour Party Conference. Sadly this year, I won't be joining them - (but next year I will!). So, if you too can't make - join me in following it from afar.

As with all the other major conference there will be live coverage on BBC Parliament. The conference website can be accessed here.

The official party twitter feed can be found at http://twitter.com/#!/UKLabour, but there will be plenty of tweeting going on from individual attendees.

Some of the MPs and Peers I follow on Twitter are

Liz Kendall MP
Stella Creasy MP
Toby Perkins MP
Tristram Hunt MP
Gloria De Piero MP
Jon Ashworth MP
Baroness Royall (Shadow Leader of the House of Lords)
Lord Bassam (Shadow Chief Whip in the House of Lords)
Baroness Thornton
Lord Knight of Weymouth
Baroness Smith of Basildon

Privacy and the Law

A Hot topic of the moment - particularly in the UK where the use of 'superinjunctions' has dominated the media in recent weeks - and the publication on Twitter of details of these has posed a huge question about how Parliament and the Courts should proceed.

The Brookings Institution has published a paper that contains some real meat for lawyers; lawyers and citizens to think about. It takes a look at US law and applies US constitutional principles - but illustrates the problems that any legal system faces when trying to balance the rights of privacy and free expression - in the face of technological developments.

The paper can be accessed here.

Catching up on the News

With the internet, there has been an explosion of sources of news - long gone are the days when we have to rely on what the limited number of permitted radio and TV stations and newspapers report. Of course there is a downside. On the first phrases taught when learning about computers was "GIGO - Garbage in, garbage out". Readers need to be discerning!

How can anyone manage the deluge of information? Once signing up for emails from a favoured news source was a useful way of getting news - but the time that could be spent opening and reading all the emails would take a significant bite out of anyone's day!

I found it useful to set up a twitter account (WM Alert) - which subscribes to tweets from news sources that I respect and trust - for example -

News Organisations (UK)
- BBC Politics
- Guardian Politics
- Indy Politics (The Independent)

News Organisations (US)
- New York Times Politics
- (Washington) Post Politics
- NPR Politics
- CNN Politics
- MSNBC Politics

Parliamentary Specialists
- UK Parliament
- ePolitix
- LobbyDog

Congressional Specialists
- Roll Call
- The Hill
- Politico
- C-SPAN

In addition I subscribe to feeds from various reporters on the Hill

Academic/Think Tanks
- APSA
- IPSA
- Brookings
- Hansard Society
- Chatham House

and many more, including (the full list is available on the WM_Alert page on twitter). I use WM_Alert for my personal use, but also retweet stories of interest. You are very welcome to subscribe

Tweeting in Congress

A couple of days I wrote about MPs who tweet. Last week CRS produced a report entitled "Social Networking and Constituent Communication: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Week Period in the 111th Congress". It's a fascinating snapshot of use of Twitter, and I'm sure many people will be looking closely at it.

In it's summary it says: -

The data show that 158 Representatives and Senators are registered with Twitter (as of August 2009) and issued a total of approximately 1,187 “tweets” during the data collection periods in July and August 2009. With approximately 29% of House Members and 31% of Senators registered with Twitter, Members sent an average of 85 tweets per day collectively. House Republicans sent the most tweets (54%), followed by House Democrats (27%), Senate Republicans (10%), and Senate Democrats (9%). The data also suggest that more tweets were sent on Thursday than any other day of the week.

Members’ use of Twitter can be divided into six categories: position taking, press or web links, district or state activities, official congressional action, personal, and replies. The data suggest that the most frequent type of tweets were press and web link tweets, which comprised 43% of insession and 46% of recess tweets. This is followed by official congressional action tweets during session (33%) and position-taking tweets during recess (14%).

Update on twitter and Parliament

This piece of research has just been published by the Universities of Plymouth & Bournemouth

Summary

They might be trailing the Conservative Party in the opinion polls but when it comes to using Twitter, the Liberal Democrats and Labour are kings of the House of Commons.

Further detail

Research has revealed that nearly 67% of all tweeting MPs belong to Labour ahead of 18% for the Liberal Democrats, with the Tories relegated into third place with just 12%. When you factor in the proportion of MPs that each party boasts, it is clear that the Lib Dems are leading the way when it comes to embracing the popular social media site. And yet overall, just 51 of our 645 MPs are classed as regular Twitter users – among them Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families; Ben Bradshaw, Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, former Tory party leadership contestant Peter Lilley and John Prescott. The figures have been released following a joint research project by the University of Plymouth and Bournemouth University into how politicians are engaging with their constituents using Social Networking Sites and modern media. Together, the institutions have identified three main indicators of the parliamentary tweeter:

Gender – women MPs are more likely to tweet. While they compose just 19.4% of the Commons they make up 29.4% of tweeters.
Party – Labour has 54.2% of all MPs, and provides 66.7% of tweeting MPs. The Liberal Democrats have only 9.8% of all MPs, but provide 17.6% of all tweeting MPs. The Conservatives have 29.8% of all MPs, but provide only 11.8% of tweeting MPs.
Portfolio – 43.1% of tweeting MPs are either Government Ministers or Official Opposition spokespersons.

MPs tend to use Twitter as a means of promoting their activities in their constituency or when they are in Westminster, and again, the research has identified several trends:

On average 27% of MPs tweet as part of an impression management strategy. MPs promote their activities, such as giving speeches, speaking in parliament, holding positions or launching a policy document to help build a positive impression of them both as a professional and as an individual.

21% of MPs’ tweets are used as promotion of self whereby the MP seeks to present a ‘hinterland’ which shows them as human beings. This tends to include details of their personal life, personal interests, such as sport and music and the use of humour.

14% of MPs’ tweets support their constituency service role where they explain what they are doing in the constituency, highlight local issues and mention local constituents.
Only 11% of MPs’ tweets are partisan in nature. So this means that MPs are far more likely to raise their own profile rather than that of their party!

Dr Darren Lilleker, of Bournemouth University, said: “So far the number of tweeting MPs is fairly small, but Twitter may be a more effective means of enhancing an MPs representative role than weblogs or social networking sites. Because Twitter is quick to update, MPs can use it to regularly explain what they are doing on behalf of constituents. “In a time of public scepticism towards politicians, Twitter may be more effective than other non face-to-face communication channels, but only if MPs’ tweets are seen as worth receiving. “With MPs finding audiences hard to reach, Twitter may well be used more widely in order to speak directly to the public. However, Twitter cannot be simply a tool for broadcasting. MPs need to talk to others in the ‘Twittersphere’ and respond to questions if they are to gain a loyal, trusting audience” One very new trend is that of MPs using Twitter to provide the public with a ‘ring-side seat’ at major occasions. For example, when the new Speaker was elected on 22 June, a number of MPs sent updates from the Chamber during the speeches and voting – with Sandra Gidley, Lib Dem MP for Romsey, Hampshire, tweeting over 100 times. The number of tweets made during June – the month selected for the purpose of the research – ranged from just one to 827 (Labour’s Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy), while the number of followers ranged from 63 to the 4,441 reading the updates of Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East. And the research has also revealed that tweeting is not necessarily a one-way street. The number of other tweeters that MPs follow ranges from zero to over 1,000, with a median of 133. Twenty two MPs follow less than 50 others tweeters, while 23 reciprocated by following at least 100, and in some cases entering into ‘public conversations’ with followers.

Dr Nigel Jackson, of the University of Plymouth, added: “There are clear differences in usage between those who barely use Twitter and the enthusiasts for whom this has quickly become a regular communication channel. Within what has now become for these pioneers a parliamentary community, Twitter has become a ‘virtual social club’ where they tease one another, gossip and occasionally score political points. “There is evidence that it is not just among sitting MPs that Twitter is becoming popular, with an increasing number of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) also adopting the technology. This development may add significantly to citizen involvement at the next general election campaign, where voters quickly and easily question the candidates. Twitter may help break down barriers between elected and elector.”

Who's Tweeting?

More and more politicians are using Twitter to communicate - on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK a wedsite has been set up which seeks to identify (and link to) all the current MPs and PPCs (Prospective Parliamentary Candidates) who tweet. It isn't a complete list - but you may find it useful - Tweetminster

If you are not listed, and should be, get in touch (ie. sign up to follow) with tweetminster

Keeping up with News from Congress

As well as signing up for "Tweets" [See the post http://washminster.blogspot.com/2009/08/watching-newswires.html] - it is possible to read some of the newspapers in Washington online.

The Hill - there is a link in column 4 to "print editions"

Washington Post

C-SPAN is available on the internet - and their current schedule is available at http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=schedule

Watching the Newswires

Twitter can be used for many things. Much ridicule has been heaped on those who use it to broadcast their every insignificant move, action or thought to the world. But it can be a useful way of keeping up to date with news from Congress and Parliament.

If you haven't got an account yet - just sign up at http://twitter.com/. I've had an account for a long time now - but have recently started to use "Tweetdeck" as a platform that allows me to have my screen updated regularly with "Tweets" from individuals and bodies I follow - as well as updates of my friends' status on Facebook. I can also "tweet" direct to Twitter and Facebook. To download TweetDeck go to http://tweetdeck.com/beta/download/.

My favourite sources of news are :-

US Congress

CQPolitics - Excellent & Frequent Tweeter on Congress. Well Respected Publisher on Congress

RollCall - my favourite newspaper available in DC (and by subscription even in Milton Keynes)

thehill - from "The Hill" a newspaper about Congress

CSPAN - the cable channel providing live coverage of Congress - and much much more

Senatus - coverage of US Senate

OpenCRS - access to some of the excellent reports produced by the first class CRS

Senator Reid - Majority Leader of the Senate

NancyPelosi - unofficial site, news of the Speaker of the House of Representatives

Johnboehner - Minority Leader, House of Representatives

UK Parliament

UK Parliament - from the Palace of Westminster direct

Politics_co_uk - good UK based news service

Epolitix - another good news service specialising in Parliamentary matters

Hansard Society - from that excellent Society (see many previous posts)

Downing Street - from No 10

I'd welcome any of your recommendations. (If you want to link up with me on facebook - my name their is 'jdavidmorgan'. I also use Skype - with the same name.)

Following Gordon

Over last weekend I was able to follow Gordon Brown and his entourage as they arrived in New York, visited the UN, then moved onto Washington for the G20 summit. This was possible because I had signed up for "10 Downing Street" on twitter. You can do this at http://twitter.com/DowningStreet. I also find it useful to get updates on new documents published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) from http://twitter.com/opencrs