Damned if we do, damned it we don't!

Can't find it on Times website, but here's a summary of today's story re politicians and Twitter:

‘Politicians twitter while the country burns’ (Ti p25)- Sylvester doesn’t seem to be too impressed with politicians’ use of twitter from GB downwards. She says in this country, middle-aged MPs hope they will look youthful and “in touch” if they use the latest web tool. But there is a slight Dad-on-the-dancefloor feel to some of their attempts. The content is all too often less twitter than witter. Is the reputation of politics really enhanced by the revelation Knight is “snowed under with paperwork” or that Shapps is “contemplating taking my eldest son to play football in the rain” or that Harris “can't find the TV remote control”? Twitter is reality TV without the pictures. There is a combination of neurosis and narcissism involved. The psychologist Oliver James has said: “Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It's a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity.”

Sylvester thinks that at Westminster, it is a symbol of a wider loss of confidence by the political class. At the very moment when leadership is required to deal with the economic downturn, politicians of all parties are frozen in the headlights of the recession. The Govt is now the majority shareholder of several banks but seems to have no control over the bankers. The opposition parties are quick to criticise Labour's decisions but find it hard to say what they would do instead. The political elite has been neutered by the collective failure to predict and prevent the credit crunch and their apparent powerlessness to reverse it now. There are global new deals and there is Twitter - but what precisely is there in between?