Here was the London weather outlook as photographed on 8th July…. rain with a low of minus 3.

How about this timely sports news (from this game)

No mention of the world cup… or wimbledon…. (results shown from this game)

I’m surprised on two counts.

1. That I was able to take photos in public place without being questioned by security services
2. That the information displayed is 6 MONTHS out of date

I’m just not sure which I am more surprised about!

See www.modproductions.org.uk

Any chance of new planting too?

http://twitter.com/takeback2010

While they show that under AV the Lib Dems would only increase their seats to 79, the most interesting think for me is that the Conservatives still poll the most seats but insufficient for a majority in all examples.

A Lib/Lab coalition under AV would have a 60 seat majority, with a Lib/Con group a majority of 98. Under FPTP a Lib/Con coalition has a notional 106 majority over Labour. A Lib/Lab group manages just 8 seats. Under STV, a Lib/Lab coalition would have a 123 seat majority, with a Lib/Con group a majority of 201.

Found via The Guardian.

Dressed in purple and holding signs such as “fair votes now” and “votes not moats” around a thousand campaigners gathered in order to “Take back Parliament” for the voters.

We’ll be doing it all again tonight, so I hear…..

Rupert Murdoch and News Corpse was slain below Nelson. I’m sure he would have approved.

Billy Bragg sang us a song.

And invited us to join him on a walk down to Smith Street where a meeting of Liberal Democrat MPs needed to hear our voices.

Zero Comments is something that I know about….

The report MPs online: Connecting with constituents published today by the Hansard Society touches on the decay of traditional media in its investigation into the attitudes of our Parliamentarians towards ‘new media’, it’s use and its value to them in political communications.

The internet creates “an opportunity to restructure communication between MPs and their constituents” writes Andy Williamson in the Background to the report. ” This has,” he writes, “led to both an increase in opportunity and, in some cases, motivation for MPs to communicate online.” He continues

“It is not just the volume and immediacy of communication that is changed by the internet, new network technologies change the very nature of communication, conversation and engagement and this is clearly visible across the wider online world.”

While the use of ICT has increased year on year, much of the experimentation with internet based communications by political parties, elected representatives, government departments and other bodies such as local Councils tends to miss opportunities for modifying the practices of communication away from vertical, uni-directional marketing and message propagation. Frequently we see not ‘zero comments’ but actually no comments at all. Where the experiment is with a ’social networking website, some corporate bodies have ‘zero friends’ (although Stockport Council has a few friends now, following an ‘OLD media’ source printing a story about it).

Andy Williamson concludes that

The internet has had a demonstrable impact on parliamentary communication. Most MPs are now communicating online and many have websites, some blogs and a handful maintain a presence on social networking sites. Although the internet does clearly support MPs to become more independent, the primary paradigm remains rooted in the party model. The foregoing suggests that the internet is a tool to communicate outwards, self-promote for the purposes of re-election and to gauge opinion and it is not seen as a tool to aid representation or to enhance engagement: internet-based communication by MPs is largely about delivery and devoid of strategies for engagement.

(MPs online: Connecting with constituents, 2009, p. 6)