Local Blog impact on Local Democracy: Somerton Town Council
Local Bloggers are beginning to produce a few good examples of effective scrutiny of Local Councils. In this piece David Keen, who is a Vicar in Yeovil and writes regularly for my Wardman Wire political site, gives an account of a local controversy in the Somerset town of Somerton, which has lead to a number of resignations from the Town Council.
Further, some national commentators are beginning to notice that local blogs have a place in building a better political culture in the UK.
Over to David …
Blogging, Volunteers, and Local Democracy
Somerton is about 12 miles north of Yeovil, nice little place, with plenty of character, and some good local churches. Last week most of the town council walked out. Why? Initial reports suggested that it was all the work of one lone local blog (Muck & Brass), and that they’d got fed up with his criticism of the council.
Some of the reportage:
- Newsnight (starts about 19min in, will expire in a couple of days). Slightly patronising. The clip is reproduced on Michael Cricks blog in Youtube format, and above.
- Western Gazette (local paper). Love the ‘internet blogger’. Didn’t realise there were other sorts
- BBC , which cuts and pastes from the Gazette.
- The Mail.
- The Times.
