House of Commons - what is going on? [Poll]

UKParliament

Please take the time to vote in our Poll!

DOT is dedicated to increasing public engagement with the House of Commons and as such we are extremely interested in finding out from users of MSE how you get your information about the work of the House of Commons – is it through newspapers (either print or on-line), through morning or evening News programmes or via the official Parliament twitter accounts? Why do you chose this option over others?

If there are some sources that you don’t use – we would love to find out why! Equally if you use sources that aren't mentioned in the poll - please tell us what they are so we can get as rounded an understanding as possible.

Please do take this opportunity to inform us and help us to consider ways to adapt and enhance our provisions for better informing the public about the work of the House of Commons.

Many thanks
DOT

Who is DOT? Find out in DOT's Mission Statement.
Please note - we are politically impartial and cannot comment on government policy or give a political opinion.

oneye14

Never Twitter, facebook or youtube.

Maybe Radio/TV news

UKParliament

Hi MSE’ers!

Thank you for the votes so far, please do keep voting.

Thanks
DOT

agrinnall

Well, there's a clear leader so far, although 11 votes in 3 days suggests that the vast majority don't look for HoC news anywhere at all.

BromleyBen

Fair point, aggrinnal. I can't say I ever actively LOOK for news about the HoC. I might stumble across it on other channels, but that's really about it.

UKParliament

Thank you everyone who has voted so far.

We would be very interested to know - if people don’t actively look for House of Commons information – why is this?

Your information can assist us in understanding how we can improve our services.

Many thanks
DOT

Nick_C

I'm surprised that BBC Parliament wasn't an option. I watch PMQs every week when the House is sitting. Its great entertainment, but you also learn a lot about what is going on in Parliament.

Also, if you want to increase public engagement, you may want to avoid the use of acronyms, or explain them. Adding "Digital Outreach Team" to your signature would be helpful!

BromleyBen

House_of_Commons_Rep_(DOT) wrote: »

We would be very interested to know - if people don’t actively look for House of Commons information – why is this?

I thought about this before answering; it's because I am not interested in the House of Commons as an organisation.

I have various interests, and when researching an issue may come across a perspective bit of legislation (although to be honest, I'd probably look at a news website for this first before looking to the Parliament site).

I wouldn't think "I wonder what's happening at the House of Commons at the moment", because I don't really care about the institution - just as I don't have any particularly good reason to care what happening in the European Parliament until they bring in a law that affects me personally.

UKParliament

Nick_C wrote: »

I'm surprised that BBC Parliament wasn't an option. I watch PMQs every week when the House is sitting. Its great entertainment, but you also learn a lot about what is going on in Parliament.

Also, if you want to increase public engagement, you may want to avoid the use of acronyms, or explain them. Adding "Digital Outreach Team" to your signature would be helpful!

Hi Nick_C

thank you for your comments - we have updated our signature.

Best wishes
DOT

UKParliament

Prasanna21 wrote: »

TV news programmes or Newspaper (Online) and Facebook.

thank you Prasanna21!

Best wishes
DOT

esuhl

I don't watch TV news or read (printed) newspapers, but I do glance at the headlines on the BBC and Guardian websites from time to time (and The Register, which contains technological news).

I used to be much more interested in politics and in the way that the country was run... But then, after reading so many disingenuously biased news articles, after hearing politicians lying through their teeth indifferent to the fact that everyone knows that they're lying, and seeing how about 99% of politics seems to be about "sending out messages" or presenting the public with some kind of illusion... I pretty much gave up investing time in trying to understand what happens in the House of Commons, etc.

We are politically represented by MPs; I don't have a genuinely democratic voice, except as an occasional choice between two or three equally unappealing representatives on voting day.

So, I'm not particularly interested in what happens in the House of Commons because most of it doesn't seem to affect me. And what does affect me, I have no say in anyway.

Although, comments like this from your Mission Statement give me some small hope...

...back in 2009 MSE hosted a forum for the Treasury Select Committee to ask for comments from forum members to assist with their inquiry into Credit Searches. The results of this inquiry eventually led to a change in the law.

It would be interesting if the HoC DOT could work on some kind of independent opinion-gathering website where current HoC issues could be transparently discussed with the public.

In the modern era where an electronic message can reach virtually the whole population in seconds... why do we need to rely so heavily on MPs detachedly representing us, when they have the means to ask us...?