Author Archives: Mary Reid

Petitions to Parliament – waste of time or golden opportunity?

By Mary Reid | Published 30th July 2011 - 10:09 am

The Government has just launched its brand new e-petitions system. You can find it here. The first petitions will be going live next Thursday.

Haven’t we been here before? Well, it is true that Labour surprised us all by setting up the Number 10 online petitions website some years ago, and that this attracted thousands of petitions.

But after the initial enthusiasm there was inevitable disappointment, because, in the vast majority of cases, the only response received by petitioners was a statement from a civil servant. It is true that, in some cases, petitions channelled strong public concern about …

Posted in Online politics | Tagged e-petitions | 25 Comments

Opinion: Digital local government

By Mary Reid | Published 21st April 2011 - 9:25 am

The devolution of powers and responsibilities from central to local government – a major commitment of the Coalition – has long been an aspiration of Liberal Democrats. Centrally-driven, over-prescriptive bureaucracy is bad for democracy. But there is a danger that devolution could result in disenfranchising people if their democratic entitlements are not defined, recognised and upheld.

Before we go any further we need to distinguish between two ways in which residents relate to their local council:

Residents are consumers (or users) of local council services.
Residents are citizens. They have the right to vote in elections, of course. Beyond that, as Liberal Democrats,

…

Posted in News | Tagged featured | 6 Comments

Opinion: Do social networking sites support democracy and the Open Society?

By Mary Reid | Published 6th December 2010 - 11:47 am

The obvious answer is, yes. But do they?

Let’s track this idea back.

In 1979 Christopher Evans published “The Mighty Micro”. His bold and prophetic book looked at the impact of the microchip on society over the next 10-15 years.

In the same year, 1979, I wrote my first computer program on a teletype terminal and stored it on paper tape. Some desk top computers had been built, but they were very uncommon.

The chapter that really inspired me when I first read it was the one on Political and Social Issues. He predicted that the 1980s and 1990s would be dominated by “virtually infinite data transmission”

“This kind of development will encourage lateral communication – the spread of information from human being to human being across the base of the social pyramid. Characteristically this favours the kind of open society … the opposite effect on autocracies who like to make sure that all information is handled very firmly downwards”

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged net neutrality, tim berners lee | 3 Comments

Opinion: Pulling the plug on swimming pools?

By Mary Reid | Published 30th October 2010 - 12:55 pm

Over the last week, we’ve all focussed on welfare issues, tuition fees and housing. The impact of the 7% pa cut in local government funding has yet to register with most of us.

Each council will make its own decisions on how to deal with a total grant reduction of 28% over four years. Coverage will be local, so the public will inevitably blame councillors rather than ministers when popular services disappear.

The media have been, inaccurately, talking about a 28% cut in council budgets (rather than in funding) – it’s not quite as bad as that, although it will still be …

Posted in Local government, Op-eds | Tagged grant shapps, guest editor | 13 Comments

How to blog successfully as a councillor

By Mary Reid | Published 28th November 2009 - 8:55 am

Welcome to part eight of our “Introduction to blogging” guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It’s appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it’s the turn of Kingston councillor Mary Reid.

You probably already know that 7% of Liberal Democrat councillors have a website/blog, compared with 2% of Tory …

Posted in Blogging guide | Tagged blogging, featured | Leave a comment

Mary Reid on Nick’s first 100 days

By Mary Reid | Published 27th March 2008 - 8:55 pm

Just before we knew who our new Leader would be, I wrote one of the pieces on Lib Dem Voice giving him some advice for the first 100 days.

I said:

We all know that our real power base is in local government. And it is here that some of the most interesting initiatives in community politics are being played out by Lib Dem run councils.

So I want to challenge the new leader to capitalise on our distinctive style of leadership out beyond Westminster. He could begin by a fact-finding tour of the country, and, guided by local knowledge, align himself

…

Posted in Leadership Election, Op-eds | Leave a comment

Nominate your International ePolitician

By Mary Reid | Published 21st January 2008 - 10:53 am

I have a dream that the International ePolitician Award will go to a Brit, and a Lib Dem at that.

Since I am involved with ICELE, which is sponsoring the awards, I can’t nominate anyone. The rest of you have got until next Wednesday to do the right thing.

To quote:

ePolitician – making a difference on the ground
This award will be given to the politician who can demonstrate how, by engaging online, they have made a difference to their electorate, and how online engagement has improved local people’s lives.

You can nominate any elected representative, or if you are one, you can …

Posted in Online politics | Leave a comment

Opinion: What should the new leader do in his first 100 days? #4

By Mary Reid | Published 18th December 2007 - 8:55 am

We all know that our real power base is in local government. And it is here that some of the most interesting initiatives in community politics are being played out by Lib Dem run councils.

So I want to challenge the new leader to capitalise on our distinctive style of leadership out beyond Westminster.

He could begin by a fact-finding tour of the country, and, guided by local knowledge, align himself with the greenest or most citizen-centric initiatives that have been introduced by our councillors. Each one will be accompanied by a challenge to the other parties to show whether they have …

Posted in Leadership Election, Op-eds | Tagged nick clegg | 7 Comments

Opinion: Bring back the suppressed blogs

By Mary Reid | Published 23rd September 2007 - 12:42 pm

I was pretty shocked to learn, via Colin Ross’s blog this morning, that a councillor’s blog has been taken down. In fact, his webhost has been shut down as a result of an international legal action which had nothing at all to do with him.

Bob Piper is a Labour councillor in Sandwell and I have dipped into his feisty blog from time to time. It’s just the kind of campaigning local blog that councillors should be doing; it keeps democracy alive and lively, and I value that even when I disagree with what he writes.

The story revolves around …

Posted in Op-eds | 5 Comments

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