Will a Conservative Government be the Age of the Blogger?

Amidst all the talk about raising pension ages and fixing the economy, Conservatives have thrown out some interesting ideas for making government more open, at their Manchester conference.

These include a public consultation stage for new laws - after a Bill's second reading in the Commons but before it goes into committee stage, when amendments are drawn up - allowing the public to suggest changes

This will all be done online.

The Tories also plan to cut back on inspections of local authorities, and instead tell councils to publish every item of spending above £500 online.

The idea would be to replace the top-down accountability that exists at the moment with a bottom-up regime, where residents are able directly to scrutinise what their councils are doing.

While the aim is to let individuals get more involved in government, there will also be a role for mainstream media and bloggers in making sense of it all and providing forums for debate.

Of course, it also means there is a danger that people without internet access will be excluded from parts of the democratic process.