Just read the piece that Matt Weaver did on the blog in the politics section of Guardian Online. It is quite a good article, although one or two misunderstandings have crept in.

The beauty of blogging is that I can correct them now with the knowledge that most readers of the article will go on to read this!

One of the points that I wanted to emphasise is that blogging will only work as a political tool if we can conquer the digital divide and get more people on-line. In Leeds the Labour council is doing an enormous amount by putting free internet access into public libraries. There are now 500 computers in 56 libraries providing more than one million hours of free internet access a year to the public. Nationally the government is also doing a lot with initiatives such as the UK Online Get Started campaign. (Someone will probably critiscise me for being too New Labour again, but it's not my fault the government is doing a good job on this!)

That's one of the reasons why I believe that blogging couod eventually become one of the prime means of communication between politicians and the electorate.

A frequent compaint of voters is that "we only see you at election time". Well with an electorate of 16,000 and the fact that being a councillor is not a full time job it would be impossible to see people even that frequently! Although being an MP is a full time job they have to deal with at least five times that number.

At one time people had time to attend public meetings and listen to 'soap-box' speeches by politicans. Delivering regular newsletters or leaflets to peoples homes is also hard. They take time to write and design. Money to print (and most local political parties of any colour are skint and rely on donations from members). And people to deliver them (the numbers of activists are dwindling and aging making frequent or regular delvery a difficult proposition).

A blog is a way of solving these problems, but only if we give people access to the net. It also has the benefit of being two way. I want to know what my constituents think. I want the brick bats (and hopefully some compliments!). I want to use the debate to stimulate my input into formulating local Labour policy.

The other point I wanted to correct was that I wasn't inspired by Tom Watson's blog. I actually came across that AFTER I had started my own. I do however find it interesting to look at Tom's to see what sort of things he thinks he can say and my attack on Mark Harris the Leeds Lib Dem leader was partially inspired by some of Tom's comments about opposition MPs. Knowing Tom's views on the Liberals I'm sure he would approve!