Judges reveal best (and worst) politicians' websites

The inaugural MP Website Awards , an event spearheaded by the British Computer Society (BCS), was presented at the House of Commons on Wednesday.

"Is he more interested in himself or his voters?" asked the judging panel en route to deciding the best — and worst — websites created by the country's MPs.

The critical comments — not about Boris (pictured above) — were not untypical of the outpourings of a judging panel evaluating the efforts made by our top politicians to bring themselves online.

BCS president Nigel Shadbolt chaired an experienced team of judges, including political journalists Patrick Wintour from The Guardian, and the Daily Mail's Quentin Letts.

Many MPs, however, have still not created a website. Of the 646 elected representatives in the House of Commons, 96 failed to list a URL in the official MPs directory.

Of those who do have a site, many simply were not good enough, argued the judges, basing the awards on three key criteria: design, engagement and accessibility. But they did highlight the successes.

The unmistakable Boris Johnson, Conservative MP for Henley, was recognised as a finalist in the BCS's design category with a site that was "engaging, busy and interactive, with plenty of opinion and an extended Wikipedia presence".

Johnson was beaten to the design award, however, by Paul Flynn, the 72-year-old veteran MP for Newport West in South Wales.

Flynn, labelled "Labour's Welsh Terrier" by the BBC's Nick Assinder, is getting familiar with website accolades, having received a New Statesman award for his efforts in 2000.

The BCS applauded Flynn's 2007 efforts as both "bold and attentive".

In a second awards category, engagement, the judges were seeking to highlight effective use of interactive media, such as videos and blogs.

The pictured site, that of West Suffolk Conservative Richard Spring, offers constituents a range of podcasts, blogs and a newswire service. As a result, Spring was recognised as a finalist in the category.

The judges presented the engagement award to another senior MP, Labour's outspoken Derek Wyatt.

Wyatt was commended for his use of quizzes and polls on the site, and also for his up-to-date content.

The third category the judges sought to recognise was accessibility. Each shortlisted site was tested by AbilityNet, a charity which helps people with disabilities to use technology.

According to Robin Christopherson, web consultancy manager for AbilityNet, website owners can offer a range of features for people with poor eyesight, including magnification software, text-to-speech software and voice recognition.

Christopherson said that only about 10 percent of UK sites meet accessibility law standards, although MPs' websites fared a little better.

"[MPs are] above the average level of accessibility out there," Christopherson said, although he added that, because their sites were often simpler than commercial sites, it was easier to make them accessible.

Following AbilityNet's assessments, the BCS granted the accessibility award to Hull MP Alan Johnson, praising his efforts on page navigation and the fact that he allowed text on his site to be resized.

The only woman to be recognised, Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, was highly commended by the judges because of her considerable efforts at blogging.

The top award was saved for one of the House of Commons' younger members. Adam Price, who claims to have kicked off plans for the Labour/Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly coalition on his blog, was presented with the Best MP Website award.

The website representing Price, Plaid Cymru MP for Camarthen, was hailed as "clear and consistent, with solid content".

Price said: "Blogs and websites are becoming essential to British politics. It is the most powerful communications medium we have now."

Price added that many MPs were sceptical of the need for websites, and he said that he hoped many of them will realise the potential benefits.

Not all MPs' websites were of such high quality. Some of the poorer sites, which were not individually named, were heavily criticised by the judges. Their comments included:

• "This could have been [produced] eight years ago"
• "Stolid"
• "Is he more interested in himself or his voters?"
• "Self-promoting"
• "No consistency. More like a shop front"

Research conducted by ZDNet.co.uk backs up the BCS's findings. Of the 550 MP sites listed on the parliament.uk website, many were far from interactive and most lacked the level of information many constituents might expect to find.

It is not uncommon to find sites consisting of only five or six pages, such as that which promotes Middlesbrough South MP Ashok Kumar, or the considerably out-of-date site, pictured, of Ulster Unionist Sylvia Hermon, whose top item on her news page focused on an event she had attended in 2003.