Jo Swinson joins Nick Clegg at innovative Twitter event (East Renfrewshire Liberal Democrats)

East Renfrewshire Liberal Democrats <info@eastrenfrewshirelibdems.org.uk>

Jo Swinson joins Nick Clegg at innovative Twitter event

July 14, 2009 6:09 PM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats

Jo Swinson MP joined Nick Clegg to answer questions submitted live via Twitter as part of a pioneering event organised by Reuters.

At the 'Social Media Greenroom' event yesterday, Jo Swinson and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg took part in Reuters' 'Great Debate', answering questions on everything from the war in Afghanistan to university tuition fees. While questions were submitted live online, Nick and Jo responded via live video feed and on Twitter. Jo Swinson was invited to answer questions on politics and social media in this event, which was the first of its kind, due to her reputation as one of the few MPs to embrace digital media.Jo Swinson MP: East Dunbartonshire

Commenting, Jo Swinson said:

"I am a strong advocate of using social media in politics and this live event illustrated the fact that people really can get answers to questions that ordinarily might never be directly answered at all. It was a great exercise both for people to put their questions and opinions to us, and for us to gain insight into what sorts of things people to want talk about. We need to see more two-way communication in modern politics and the Reuters event was an excellent demonstration of that fact that this really isn't too difficult to implement. I certainly hope to take part similar events in future in order to keep up the healthy debate of topical political issues."

Notes:

You can view the transcript of the Q&A sessions here:

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/2009/07/08/ask-nick-clegg/

Jo's Twitter page: http://twitter.com/JoSwinson

AskClegg on Twitter: twitter.com/search?q=%23askclegg