In The House

Our lobbying class had a trip to the Palace of Westminster this evening. We had a bit of a chat with Tom Watson MP, whose blog you can check out by going to my 'General Interest' links, about his views of the public affairs industry. Surprisingly he doesn't seem to think Parliament is a rubber stamp for the government. I suppose he has a point, specially in the current climate. I also have to conceed that he made a fair point when he talked about the fact that changes in legislation or policy brought about by pressure from MPs goes unreported. Anyway, it was all very interesting stuff and I have to say it was great to have a good look round after we finished the meeting.

Anyway, back to the topic of this blog. I took the opportunity of our visit to hand in a couple of letters for Diane Abbott and Meg Hillier who represent the two Hackney constituencies. Basically having gone through an extensive background check on why people don't vote and how new media is being deployed, especially in the States, I've decided it's time to check out the feelings of some people on the front line in the UK.

As I highlighted in my post on 3rd March Hackney is one of those areas which has a particular turnout problem. What I intend to do is check out the perceptions of those on either side of political communications, those sending and those receiving the messages. What do the senders think they can achieve? And what do the receivers believe will be the impact?

I will be trying to get as wide a range of views as possible. Hopefully, a few interesting discussion points will come out that can help those in politcial communications to be more effective.