A little help from my (Facebook) friends

With the dreary inevitability of the uncle on the wedding dance floor, politicians have stumbled across Facebook and are busy admiring pictures of themselves beaming away on the profile page.

Is this an innovative way of tapping into the somewhat nebulous "new politics" concept? Or do you, like I did, read the following passage from the speech by Steve Webb - the party's manifesto chief - and weep.

"I discovered that my e-mail group are all ‘knocking on’ a bit – most of them are over thirty! What I wasn’t doing was reaching out to the younger people who are systematically disenchanted with the whole lot of us. And then I discovered Facebook.

"For those of you who are not familiar with Facebook it’s an internet site which allows you to keep in touch with networks of friends and acquaintances, post photographs and videos, create groups in support of particular causes and even give people an hourly update on your changing mood if you want. There’s barely a student in the country who isn’t connected and in the last six months I’ve built up a group of nearly 2,000 friends, more than half of whom are young people who live in my constituency. At first they thought it was just a spoof, rather in the way that I suspect the Queen’s profile on Facebook may not be entirely genuine.

"But as soon as they realised that their local MP really was there, accessible at the push of a button, the messages and comments have flowed in. I have learned that probably the biggest single practical issue that bothers local young people in my area is – buses. They are fed up about the cost, the cleanliness, the frequency and the routes. So when I get back to Westminster in a few weeks’ time I’ll be seeking to lead a debate on buses, to table questions on buses and to get things changed about buses. Then I’ll tell my ‘Facebook friends’ what I’ve been up to and they will see that politicians do listen and act."