Our current political parties could be “swept away” by new interest groupings enabled by online communications technologies such as social networking, Dr Ian Kearns, former Head of the e-Government Programme at the Institute for Public Policy Research, has told a House of Commons meeting of PITCOM, the Parliamentary IT Committee.
Political parties “need to change or wither”, Kearns said. “They are losing their social moorings and could be swept away by different types of grouping such as social networking.”
There is a danger that online networking will make it easier for people to express their discontent by supporting fringe parties such as UKIP and the BNP, he warned. “Other new parties might emerge and become serious contenders for some part of the public vote.
“The internet can give people with a particular view a sense of how many they are, giving them confidence, and this could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing, depending on what kind of views and issues they are.”
To ward off such dangers political parties must open up, but technology in itself would not do this for them, he said. “They need to first make the decision to open up, then use the technology for that purpose: not just use technology.”
Kearns was responding to the findings of a report on the future of politics carried out by consultants the Future Laboratory for the mobile operator Orange. Tom Savigar, Director of the Future Laboratory, said politicians and public service managers in the modern age need to display “online resonance” – an affinity with the more interactive, two-way nature of modern digital communication channels.
“Politicians in the UK are still in the broadcast mode that was cultivated during the age of television. They use tools such as the internet for one-way communication, and this is a shame because the internet has so much more to offer.”
