I sat in this evening on a lively discussion at the Adam Smith Institute on Politics and the Blog.

The lead speakers were Guido and John Redwood – a contrast in style and substance. Among those I recognised with my ebbing eyesight were Brian Micklethwait, Tim Worstall, Dr Helen Szamuely and Dizzy. Samizdata people and supporters also well represented.

The general and familiar point was that ‘old’ media and especially the BBC which (it was argued) used taxpayers’ money to force others from the market were finding their previously dominant positions eroded by, yes, political bloggers. In the UK the Right/Conservatives tended to be using the new medium better than Left/Labour, as the mood on the Right was more libertarian/democratic and less wrapped up in government spinning and defending misleading statistics. Guido blithely promised to go after a Conservative government no less determinedly.

One audience member was dissatisfied with what she saw as the parochialism of the gathering – without a quite different (and reduced) British relationship with the EU the prospects for UK Parliamentary democracy looked bleak, whatever might go on in Westminster and a noisy blogosphere alike.

My thought wanders in the same direction. Just as dead-tree media and venerable banks are being eroded by new forces and ideas at a furious and unexpected pace, could not the same happen to politics and legitimacy? 

It’s all very well being struck by the huge numbers of people visiting Guido every day and watching the Dan Hannan YouTube video. But where does that leave our many political institutions which, as John Redwood said, emerged under quite different technological imperatives? And the currently powerful Conservative Party which is likely to end up leading them? 

Putting it another way, could the gap between popular frustration at the way this country is governed and the capacity of the existing political class to understand the problem and propose solutions lead to wider breakdown? One person I spoke to seemed to think so and hope so – roll on the insurrection!

Back on the Gatwick Express afterwards, the nearest thing to popular insurrection was passenger bafflement at an incoherent announcement about (we thought) passengers moving to new carriages which appeared to be in no known language.

Anyway, plenty of food for thought for my Britblog Roundup which is due to emerge next weekend. Contributions from and by British bloggers welcome.