THE Downing Street website has set up an online service for the public to send petitions to the Prime Minister on the eve of the most traditional top-down political event of the year, the Queen’s Speech — a presumably unintended ironic contrast.

Neither is quite what it seems. The new service, created with mysociety, allows for both the creation and signing of petitions on the website, reaching a wider audience and delivering petitions directly to Downing Street. This should help grassroots campaigns. The snag, however, is that there is no assurance of any government response. The petitions stop there.

The Queen’s Speech mixes the ritual and heirarchy of monarchy with the substance and soundbites of representative democracy.

Politics in the internet age was the theme of a lecture last night by George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor. This is not just about making more information available online (via his suggested new Treasury website on public spending), vital though that is, or allowing people to apply for services such as passports. The real change is broadening political involvement.

In Britain, there is what he calls a “vibrant, noisy irreverent Conservative community” on sites such as Conservativehome.com or Iain Dale’s blog, which break stories, carry commentary as well as gossip and, now, the lively new internet TV station 18 Doughty Street. On the first of these there is a vigorous, if rather narcissistic, debate about the merits of the Tory A-list and new candidate selections.

These are complementary to, rather than a replacement for, normal journalism, not least because the above sites are politically committed (Tory and proud of it, and inadequately matched on the Labour side). The filtering role of the mainstream media tends to be decried nowadays but it offers, at its best, detachment, experience and judgment, whether it appears on paper or, increasingly, online.

For politicians, the key question is how far we should move towards direct, plebiscitary democracy — a permanent referendum. Politicians can no longer just ask voters their opinions at elections every four or five years. The public should have its say in between. The Tories’ current policy reviews are posting their work online and inviting the public to submit their ideas. But there are limits. The final decisions still lie with David Cameron, Mr Osborne and the Shadow Cabinet.

In government and Parliament, the key is to use the techniques of the internet and direct democracy to strengthen the representative system. The Commons Procedure Committee is already considering whether to adopt the Scottish system of petitions, under which all but frivolous or vexatious ones are examined by a specialist committee. So voters get detailed responses to their complaints, and in some cases remedial action and even legislation. Parliamentary committees should also automatically conduct online consultations over new Bills.

As Mr Osborne concluded: “People are taking matters into their own hands through their blogs and online networks. They are organising political campaigns and building coalitions. They are the masters now.” The challenge is to ensure that we are all the masters, not just vocal and wellorganised special interests.

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