Too Poor to Protest?

 According to this Avaaz petition British "police have just told a group of climate change campaigners they must hire a private security firm to run their massive demonstration next month -- at a cost of thousands of pounds!"Allowing people to protest is a key pillar of our democracy -- we pay our taxes so the police can ensure public safety. But now several groups are being told to pay for private firms to steward the marches instead!"

Interactive Democracy provides a free format to protest, propose and vote on issues that would make marches unnecessary (but still lawful), while giving the electorate real political power on a day to day basis. If the most popular initiatives were also given publicity in the media (something that could be legislated for) there would also be less need for the publicity generating spectacle of a march.

Majority of Politicians in Westminster Unellected

According to this article by Nick Clegg there are approaching 1000 Lords meaning "the majority of politicians in our own parliament are not elected"! Perhaps we should call ourselves a partial democracy.
It isn't necessary to change or abolish the House of Lords or Interactive Democracy to be implemented, but it would save many millions per year, reduce political patronage and bias. The Lords could effect policy through ID along with everyone else but would probably garner more followers due to their experience and position.

Cheap and Getting Cheaper

One of the basic truths of information technology is that it's cheap and getting cheaper.
A web based democracy has the potential of being by far the cheapest way of operating any ballot, any general election and as secure as your online bank account. This leads to the thought that it's inevitable that it will be adopted if only to save money.
But web voting also opens up all sorts of opportunities: More frequent voting at negligible extra cost; the facility for involving everyone in policy; and the opportunity to rent out the system to other organisations, perhaps businesses, perhaps unions, maybe other organisations, may mean that it actually covers its costs. Interactive Democracy explores how this technology can be harnessed to enhance democracy.