Dear @MarySareva @Old_Marston @delia_sinclair @RoziRogers @markb_gt @MarkLygo

The County elections are coming up and campaigning has begun. Anybody in the mainstream media will tell you how significant social media are for keeping up to date with breaking news, sounding opinion and engaging in dialogue with other users. You all have twitter accounts but all but one or two of you don’t use them. Why is this? Why are you shy of social media? You turn out doggedly on the doorsteps of Oxford in all weathers but you miss the opportunity of getting your message out to electors from the comfort of your own living room.

Is there a rational explanation? Have your party spin doctors declared that time spent on social media is time wasted? Are social media users a demographic you know you can afford to ignore? There are plenty of your colleagues in other parts of the country who disagree with you. Have you got research and statistics to back you up?

You local parties aren’t much better. Their social media presence is sporadic, laboured, ineffective, out of date. I don’t understand. Enlighten me. Please.

Tony OX3