MP Watch – follow the activities of your local Member of Parliament

intouch was the title of a Conservative Party newsletter delivered to South West Holderness homes last week. It is an appropriate title to describe the status of our local MP Graham Stuart.

Graham Stuart is an MP in touch with his constituents using traditional means such as newsletters and street surgeries, but he also utilises the internet to carry out two-way communication. Website services have transformed the way in which we can follow the activities of our representatives in Parliament. This allows a level of transparency and accountability to be available that just was not possible to previous generations.

This article looks at some of those website services that are available:

You can e-mail Graham Stuart at graham@grahamstuart.com;

MP’s own website Graham Stuart, MP. This will bring you the news that the MP himself feels is essential to communicate to constituents. And very much like the Hedon Blog, you can leave comments and give your own views;

TheyWorkForYou.Com is an excellent service that allows you to find out everything you might want to know about an MP’s work in Parliament. You can arrange to be sent an e-mail everytime your MP speaks in the House of Commons; you can find out about their Voting Record, the issues that interest them, and crucially in today’s Parliament – their expenses;

Graham Stuart is on Twitter and keeps us informed of some key activities via his account at http://twitter.com/grahamstuart. Graham is an occasional Twitterer his latest Tweet actually gives a link to a speech he made on coastal towns recorded at TheyWorkForYou;

@grahamstuart speech on coastal towns at http://tinyurl.com/25qw2gv

As reported on the Blog you can follow the activities of your local MP via the iPad and iPhone;

You can also use Yoosk! to ask public questions of your local MP – and other national politicians.

Local Hedon Conservative Mike Bryan describes his colleague as a “workaholic” and – whether you support that particular Party or not – if you begin to follow Graham Stuart via the services mentioned above then you just might be inclined to agree!

Other hard working local politicians that utilise the internet and particularly Twitter to make themselves accountable are:

• John Prescott (former East Hull MP) on his Prezza Blog.

• Councillor Carl Minns, (leader of Hull City Council) on his Thoughts from Hull blog.