New Statesman Blog Contest backfires

After failing to shortlist the political blog with the most nominations, the New Statesman judges in the end decided not to award a prize in the elected representatives' category, saying:

ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE AWARD
For the first time in the history of the New Media Awards the judges have decided not to award a winner in this category. After much discussion and a considerable amount of thought they decided that none of the shortlisted nominations deserved the accolade. It was recognised that the elected representatives who have made massive efforts in creating an interesting online presence have done so with little official help and are often in a fortunate position to draw upon the technical and communication skills required. The result of this creates a lottery for citizens who wish discover and communicate with their elected representatives online. There have been some efforts to redress this balance by with the creation of tools such as Read My Day, Councillor.info and by the main political parties, however this is still not enough.

The judges believed that this is an area where elected representatives need more support, training and advice in helping them to use this media more effectively. In doing so there is a real opportunity for the UK to lead the way in communication between the representative and the represented.

Duhhhh!