One of the values of social media is the opportunity to catch glimpses of the experiences of MPs and indeed Government Ministers should you wish. Some of this is as a result of people in broadcast mode, wanting to tell others what they are up to, but not in any way interested in responding to comments. The Prime Minister and Chancellor fall into that category. They tells us what they are doing and occasionally retweet what others they know are doing, so giving the impression of this being a conversation, but it is all show. There is no evidence of any engagement with ordinary people. Of course the challenge is immense. They opened their accounts and within minutes have 10,000’s of followers and so this means 1000’s of people attempting to contact them at any time. There are others who are willing to engage with followers, people like Henry Smith, MP of Crawley who respond when the subject matters to him.

According to twitter (as well as the news), the PM is on his way to China, his tweet which accompanied the picture above read “I’m about to take off for China with a huge UK business delegation – helping us win the #Globalrace” The idea that there is a global race that the UK could win when it is placed 6th or 8th or even 23rd depending on the criteria used is simply misleading and naïve. It is certainly clear that a few trade missions will not be enough to move the UK higher up any of those tables. Sadly despite my own view on this hashtag and indeed reading the views of others who are of the same opinion, there is no evidence of the PMs office engaging with point. If as David Cameron suggests we are one of the few nations that will speak truth to Chinese Power, why not also take some NGO leaders with him on this trip. In practice he has taken relatives, friends, neighbours, industrialists, business leaders, educators (from Universities) and those involved in the Arts. No one whose role will remind the PM of the issue of young people, of refugees, of religious freedom or even of the Chinese relationship with Tibet. It will be left to the journalists to remind him of his responsibilities on those subjects, the same journalists who some members of the Conservative Party believe are out to get them.

Meanwhile according to facebook Henry Smith is off to Greece, not to return the marbles it transpires (after a long debate on the page between two constituents), but again for business purposes. However unlike the PM Henry will be back in the Commons in time for PMQ’s. We know this because Henry told us how upset he is that he won the ballot to ask a question in this gladiatorial contest, only to discover that he will be asking Nick Clegg his question. His disappointment which was shared by a number of his colleagues seemed to suggest that he really wanted to capture the attention of his Party Leader, not that he was particularly keen to have his question answered, although I might be misreading the signals.

Finally we have George Osborne, telling us about the latest addition to the household at No 11 Downing Street. Its a white fluffy dog! Thank goodness for twitter.