He looks like an internet geek, which is what I suppose he is. He has certainly done some geeky things: worked as a civil servant in the Prime Minister’s strategy unit, written a pamphlet for the achingly trendy, mind-bogglingly esoteric and ridiculously pretentious think-tank Demos and been a consultant to the “horizons scanning” team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Presumably its version of blue-skies thinking.

But this unlikely hero has come up with a series of ideas, under the umbrella mySociety.org, to bridge the gap between politics and people. At www.theyworkforyou.com you can check what your MP, or a member of the House of Lords, is up to; see how often they speak or vote and how; check their interests; or register your own pet subject and receive e-mails whenever it has come up in Parliament. The ideas are far better and more direct than the worthy (and wordy) hand-wringing produced by endless parliamentary committees and commissions about voter engagement. And the site works more smoothly and simply than a similar one operated on the Parliament website. If nothing else, you can entertain yourself looking up faintly naughty words. I did.

Hark at the Earl of Onslow on the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill last year: “Is the following little gem of a footnote to be criminalised? According to Abufelda (sic), Ali, who washed the Prophet’s body, proclaimed, ‘O propheta certa penis tuus coelum versus erectus erat,’ only he said it in Arabic, not in Latin.” I have no idea what he was talking about, but I’m glad he didn’t say it in Arabic, for it wouldn’t have done for the purposes of my search at all.

• The most simple and brilliant concept that Steinberg and his colleagues have come up is www.HearFromYourMP.com, which forces MPs to debate directly with their constituents.

  The website invites people to sign up to receive messages from their MP (it will expand to councils as they request it). When 25 have done so, the MP is messaged by Steinberg advising them that their constituents would like to hear from him.

  When 50 have signed up, another message is sent; and another; and another, until the MP responds. Members of the public can then debate with the MP online. Obviously the more people who sign up, the greater the pressure on the MP to respond, so give it a go. More than 15,000 have signed up so far.

  How MPs deal with the challenge from HearFromYourMP is interesting. Some ignore it. The best responses are simple messages asking constituents for their views, such as one from Stephen Williams, MP for Bristol West, seeking opinions on the proposed smoking ban.

  The worst are effectively party press releases, or breathless accounts of how busy an MP has been: “In February there was a week of parliamentary recess, and I used it to get out and about in the constituency, visiting local schools in Lenzie & Bishopbriggs http://www.joswinson.org.uk/news/263.html, presenting a volunteering award to a Kirkintilloch nursery http://www.joswinson.org.uk/news/264.html, speaking at the Milngavie Civic Trust AGM, organising an information event for local groups to get more from the Heritage Lottery Fund http://www.joswinson.org.uk/news/260.html, visiting a Bearsden care home and a local Lenzie charity http://www.joswinson.org.uk/news/262.html.” Thank you, Jo Swinson.

  Slightly unfair, perhaps; at least she replied. Dozens have not. One MP, David Lepper in Brighton, refused to provide even an e-mail address. Ian Liddell-Grainger, who represents Bridgwater, took things to the other extreme: he has had to start again because he was caught sending messages to himself to boost his ratings.

• MySociety, a charity, is run by four full-time staff and a few dozen volunteers dotted around the country. They have no offices. They are currently looking for teachers who can advise them on how to produce material for the schools citizenship curriculum, so if any democracy-minded teachers are out there, Steinberg would love to hear from you. Probably more than your MP would.

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