America has always been somewhat ahead in utilising technology as a political tool.  Yesterday, the democratic candidates for president debated in South Carolina, with all the questions coming from videos uploaded onto the video sharing website YouTube.

The result was by far the most engaging of the presidential debates so far.

Questions ranged from extremely moving to the slightly disturbing.  Joe Biden pulled off one of the better one liners of the night in response to the latter.  'If that's his idea of a baby', the Senator quipped, 'he needs help'.  He then added that he hoped the man 'doesn't come looking for me'.

The questions added a personal touch, always clearly illustrating the human consequence of policy decisions - such as the question from a lesbian couple asking whether the candidates would allow them to marry.

Invariably though, the questioners and their videos added value to the questions they asked, leading to a debate which embodied the sort of bottom up, engaged, politics to which Greg Dyke was referring in his recent CentreForum speech.  Hopefully, by the time of the next British election, we will have caught up somewhat.