Other Reasons To Feel That Morden Has A Bit Of Catching Up To Do

Hard to believe it, but the general election took place less than a month ago. Actually, people in Morden (or the Mitcham & Morden constituency to be precise) can be forgiven for thinking of general elections as a bit of a non event; let's face it, there aren't many safer seats around it would seem ... this suits some people and doesn't suit others.

One area which made the last general election feel somewhat different from previous elections though was how everybody - voters, candidates and media - looked at ways of using digital media and social networking to their advantage. Like many others followed several Twitter feeds from a number of political party candidates, political commentators & bloggers and national & local press. Personally I don't think I've ever felt better informed and up-to-date with what was going on in the run up to an election.

EXCEPT ... all the social media in the world proved pretty useless when it came to keeping up to speed on what my local candidates were up to. For example, I was not able to find a single one of them on Twitter (happy to be proven wrong though), but found candidates from neighbouring constituencies practically without trying.

Perhaps the safe nature of the Mitcham & Morden seat is reflected in candidates' approach to campaigning; maybe some of them just thought "why bother" sort of thing?

Similarly, when it comes to accessing digital media Morden is also a bit behind (although things are slowly but steady getting better). A check on Broadband Speed Checker reveals that a few pockets are starting to reach connection speeds just shy of 20Mb ... not bad, but not exactly threatening the near 50Mb speeds found in other parts of the country.

Whilst this posting may sound like a case of sour grapes that isn't the case. Of the two issues highlighted above the first one is easily fixed and the other one will sort itself out over time. Then the good citizens of Morden will be in a much stronger position to actively engage with the local community.