Ali G, MP(Lab)

Well, not quite. A Labour MP has today shown something lacking of late – a sense of humour. Sion Simon, the Labour MP, has been posting on YouTube. Better still, he’s been spoofing the cringeworthy offerings of webCameron. Sporting a delightful baseball cap, Simon decided to follow Cameron’s policy of late of being all things to all people, using ‘street talk’ and appealing to voters on a personal, imformal level. It’s well worth a look here.

The debate on the BBC News 24 was exploring the way politics has taken to blogs and MP’s personal sites. All well and good, but I can’t see it working for long – few public figures write on their online presence in the same way they would speak in public. Let’s be honest here, few public figures probably write their online efforts themselves – I can just see David Cameron spending an evening with his desk lamp shining down on his computer monitor, working away at his latest WordPress Theme and reorganising the categories, asking “‘Arial’ or ‘Verdana’ for the Title dear?”

I think it’s probably more telling about the kind of people becoming MP’s these days. In one of history’s firsts, none of the current cabinet has served in one of the armed forces. Fellow cynics will have known for years no one writes in their school book, “when I grow up I want to be an MP”, with pictures of Thatcher and Widdecombe on their bedroom walls.

But what of Sion Simon? I suggest whiling away a few spare minutes at TheyWorkForYou.com, a webwatch of MP’s if you don’t already know it. It suggests the MP’s speeches are pitched at the level of an 18 year old. He’s asked the most questions about the National Lottery, Export Licences and the Royal Mint. He’s average on his contribution to debate, below average on replying to public questions, and receives below average numbers of replies to his input in parliament. So he’s generally below average, and yet he has cost us in the last year a very respectable, above average, £122k in expenses – £1858 in computer equipment alone. At least we know we’re funding his YouTube habit…