www.number-10.gov.uk

The United States presidency had one of the first big-budget websites in its online “Welcome to the White House” (at www.whitehouse.gov). It was designed to make the political process more accessible to the public.

Now Britain, seized by New Labour’s fascination for all things modern, has its very own 10 Downing Street website, introduced with a welcome message from the Prime Minister.

A visit will give you an online tour of the premises, a history of the building and biographies of some of Tony Blair’s predecessors. Much is made of the interactive nature of such sites (you can send questions by e-mails), but its main use is providing information straight from the horse’s mouth.

This website publishes the Prime Minister’s announcements daily, so if you want to see what he has said and the details of what’s proposed, rather than a couple of paraphrased sentences in a newspaper article, this could be the place to look. It might be bad news for journalists, but it is probably good news for everybody else.

Sean Coughlan - https:www.tes.co.uk