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Today in parliament...

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...or rather yesteryear in "Mother of Parliaments".  Apparently MP for North East Bedfordshire, Alistair Burt, has had his, digits rapped, for reading from a constituent's letter on his Blackberry during a speech in the House of Commons.

Now, after a decade of the sort of rumours of MPs being ordered around by whips and so on to be "on message" via electronic devices, I suppose they may be paranoid that someone is getting their entire speech, live, from some backroom researcher or coach (and it mightn't not be a bad thing I suppose for MPs actually to be informed when they open their gobs!).  But really - this sort of luddism is ill-becoming the so called "Mother of Parliaments".

With us all being ordered to save paper, not to "print this email unless absolutely necessary" and so on, if someone sends you an email version of a letter you want to read out, why print it if you can take it in on your PDA with you?  If you have made notes for your speech on your iThoughts mind-mapping tool on your iPhone, why not use them in a debate or speech without the inconvenient and tree destroying interim phase of printing the damned thing out?  If it helps them make better speeches because of the new ways you can rehearse using such tools, why not use them?


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