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RealityLicks -> RE: European Parliament using social sites to boost elections (5/3/2009 6:26:11 AM)
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In answer to your first question, lovely Tulip, I'm not sure that the increasing importance of online campaigning will mean the end of meeting the public, for politicians. I can recall attending the launch of a political website aimed at the young (ahem) in Amsterdam all of five years ago and although it has probably claimed lots of public funding and private advertising since, I doubt it has made quite the impact it promised. I wouldn't have attended if not for the presence of real-life champagne and fit women, the online versions never rattle my ballot box in quite the same way.
Without Mr Obama's immense oratorical gifts, his web efforts would have gone the way of many before him. He wasn't the first web-aware politician -- just the first successful one. (Which is sort of the same thing in America and why we all love you so.)
On the second point namely, how has EU law affected us - how long have you got? Seriously, It's such a complex and convoluted answer that possibly no two people would agree. But I think it's important to say that national cultures, and therefore customs, evolve at their own rate still. So while the EU has strict rules on how long the working week should be, responses to the legislation varies. The French graciously fit 35 hours around their meals while the English fit sandwich breaks around working and commuting and getting shitfaced. Point being, with the many opt-outs and cultural tropes of the member nations, we are a long way from a homogenous EU super-state and most people like it that way.
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