ABSTRACT
The most conspicuous of the new information and communication technologies to have appeared on the Westminster landscape have been the ubiquitous mobile phones and pagers without which no MP is these days fully dressed. These serve to keep the MPs in permanent touch with the disciplined command of their party managers: wherever they go the Whips can find them; whatever they say the reminder to remain ‘on message’ is with them. Mobile phones and pagers serve as a reminder that there is no clear-cut relationship between the adoption of ICTs and the extension of democracy. Technologies exist within political cultures; if the latter are top-down and centralised this will be reflected in the form and nature of the information provided.
