Internet polling

Last month's consultative poll of members of manufacturing and finance union MSF over their attitude towards merger with the AEEU engineering union was conducted online as well as by telephone and post. Run by Electoral Reform Services (ERS), the vote was the first independent union poll to be run through a web site, although lecturers' union

NATFHE had previously conducted its own consultative poll on industrial action by e-mail.

ERS chief executive Owen Thomas said he expected unions to increase their use of the internet for members to express their preferences. "This step into cyberspace presents an enormous opportunity to widen democracy and increase accessibility to voting," he said.