The Tories have launched 'Stand Up Speak Up', its effort to solicit some online engagement to form its next election manifesto. On the surface, the process is in three parts: 1) read reports from policy commissions, 2) vote on policy ideas & 3) debate to have your say.

It's quite an intuitive system. You can choose to read a particular part of a policy report depending on the time you have available, five minutes (brief overview), fifteen minutes (whole summary report) etc. Once you have read the report you are taken to the next screen, where you can vote on policy initiatives. For example, under the 'Aid' policy banner, you can tick three out of seven options, including to 'Pledge half the increase in aid to Africa' or 'Make grants rather than loans to poor countries'.

It's clearly a good idea to invite your members, and the wider public to help you decide on future party policies. Having said that, users are being presented with a limited list of policy options, so it isn't as open as it could be.

Labels: Conservatives, David Cameron, online consultation, policy review, tories