The election starting pistol has been fired here in the UK as MPs return back to the House of Commons after a festive break despite nobody quite knowing exactly when the actual date of the general election will be announced.

Many political commentators have predicted that this year’s election will be fought and won/lost online, mirroring the victorious US presidential campaign won by Barack Obama.

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green was a guest this weekend on Kevin Maguire‘s radio show on LBC (Kevin was covering Andrew Pierce’s regular Sunday afternoon slot). She was there to primarily take the listeners through stries which had caught her eye in the Sunday papers.

Up until Sunday, Lynne Featherstone had been completely off my radar and I have to admit that I’d never heard of her. However, listening to her on the radio I soon realised that she was a truly modern Member of Parliament and genuinely believed in the power of social media as a public engagement platform.

It was her comments on an article by Toby Helm in the Observer (How the 2010 Election Will Be Won By Blogs and Tweets) which compelled me to track down the programme’s podcast and edit the following extract to share with you all:

(click here if you cannot view the iPadio widget above)

What becomes quickly apparent when listening to Lynne’s (lovely) voice is that she practices what she preaches and this is reflected in her web presence.

Not only does Lynne have a blog which she clearly writes herself (unlike other MPs blogs), she is also a big fan of using Twitter and Facebook to connect with her constituents. In fact, her website is Facebook Connect enabled, which I’m sure will come in handy when canvassing support in the forthcoming election.

Lynne is also an avid user of Flickr and YouTube, documenting her constituency activities using photos and videos.

I also love the fact that Lynne uses the web to communicate with her voters about the issues which matter to them. She enables the public to leave comments on her blog – something which although would seem unremarkable by most bloggers, is in fact a huge step for an MP to make and one which should encourage others to do the same.

It is with these words that Lynne really impressed me:

“I regard it as professionalism to a degree and communication. It’s just what you have to do in this media age in terms of if you’re a politician.

Communication is the name of the game, and I think it should be a two-way communication. You don’t know what people are thinking and you can’t tell them what you’re thinking or what you’re doing. So it’s very important to be in the game.

But beyond that it’s the content. It’s about engaging people. It’s about asking people to help you. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

It’s about making the content of what you have to say, something that’s relevant to them and enabling them to get involved at a local level. If you’re using them just as fodder then they’ll find that the product doesn’t match their needs.”

If Lynne’s attitude is indicative of the rest of her Lib Dem party (which I sadly suspect isn’t the case), there could be some surprising results come election day.

Anyway, I just felt compelled to blog about Lynne Featherstone as I’m in awe of her passion for her job. She is an exemplary MP and is one of Westminster’s good’uns!