Policy Research Media Morhamburn

As I write, the internet in our office and the surrounding area is currently down.  It contributed to a few searching questions, the most pertinent of which is:  how did we, or anyone else, manage to do our job without the internet?

The internet provides us with information on demand.  We want to know everything and we want to know it yesterday.  Nowhere is this thirst for information better observed that in politics.  Today, for example, all across America the final votes are being counted; the winners revered as leaders of a bright new future and the losers condemned as failures.  As predicted President Obama has taken a bit of a hammering and the Democrats have lost the House of Representatives.  Because of the internet I could’ve – had I been so inclined – watched seat-by-seat results come through via The Guardian website.

This led me to think where and how did we get our political news prior to the World Wide Web.  I’m guessing that it was left mainly to the 6 and 10 o’clock news on TV or even the wireless (the radio, not an internet reference kids).  To hear our politicians speak we would’ve actually had to go out and see them live.  How crazy is that?  Just over an hour ago I watched Prime Minister’s Questions on the Number 10 website.  Then the internet went down and I was left in limbo without any knowledge of what was going on in the world. 

Therefore as we enter into the campaign for the Holyrood elections it’s heartening to see that the SNP are going to take to the ‘phones and streets to contact one million voters’ so we get their message and Labour are going to go ‘door-to-door’ to tell us theirs.  We will be a well informed electorate should we answer the door or phone. 

So you see people we don’t need the internet.  We can get our news from the newspapers, see our politicians on the 6 o’clock news, do our research in the library and read our blogs on… oh wait…

[The views expressed by Morhamburn people in their blogs are theirs and theirs alone. they do not represent the thoughts of the company as a whole or our clients. If you have a comment to make on any blog, please email info@morhamburn.com and we’ll put the printable ones up on the website]