UK Receiving Polital Education Via SMS! By Nicholas Newman

BRITISH voters are forming political opinions and making voting decisions for the forthcoming general election using SMS.
Text-messaging service 82ASK, which aims to answer just about any question, on any subject, has seen a 61 per cent rise in questions about policies, political views, how to vote and Conservatives? beards, since the election was confirmed.
Questions vary greatly but the majority, 35 per cent, have been about who is going to win the general election, followed by specific party policies such as health and public transport, amongst others, at 20 per cent. Questions about the election also figure highly at 14 per cent, and these include examples such as: ?How do I apply for a postal vote in the general election?; Can people from Gibraltar vote in the UK elections? and ?Is there a spending limit for election campaigns?
A significant amount of ?Tony trivia? has already been asked. For example, ?What is Tony Blair?s annual salary? What is Tony Blair?s Disney nickname? What is Tony Blair?s inside leg measurement?6), ?How long have Tony Blair and Cherie been married?What is Tony Blair?s favourite TV programme? and ?Who would win a street fight between Tony Blair and George Bush? Other trivia has also intrigued people with questions arising such as: ?Which recent Conservative MPs have beards? and, What percentage of Prime Ministers went to Oxford or Cambridge
University?
With a wealth of voting options to choose from, the majority of the great British public is having to make decisions on a range of different political views and policies, as well as get on with its own life. Many people don?t want a political lecture in answer to a question, or to seem uninformed on the big issues, or simply need back up when involved in political discussions in the pub and have been using 82ASK to gain information.
Politics is a particularly challenging subject for first-time voters, the biggest users of text. A recent YouGov survey (March 2005) found that half of the young people (aged 18-24) surveyed claimed not to know what a constituency was. However, 74 per cent professed to be interested in public affairs.
Sarah McVittie at 82ASK said: ?So many people feel that they should be more informed about politics, or feel that they don?t really know what they are voting for. SMS enables them to get information in a summarised fashion, which they can use to form their decisions or will help guide them to seek further information.

?We expect significant rises in the number of questions asked as we move towards the election and our researchers are gearing up in order that we can
help drive up the number of people voting at the election.?