Kevin Wells has spent some time looking at MPData+ and, because the code was becoming hard to maintain, the result is a more or less complete rewrite, which has now been released as version 2.00.
MPData+ is a political tool, designed to help people in the United Kingdom to keep tabs on their Member of Parliament. When you first run the program and click on the icon bar, you are presented with a more or less blank main window. Input your postcode into the icon near the top, and the program will then send off a series of requests to find out first who your local MP is, and then some information about their record as an MP. (And of course, because it relies on you inputting a postcode, you can look up any MP, provided you know a postcode in their constituency.)
Basic information includes the name of the constituency they represent, their party, and some statistics about the number of debates they’ve spoken in, etc. There are also buttons that allow you to find out more – such as a list of the most recent debates, presented in a new window with a button for each that allows you to view them in detail in your web browser, as well as some further buttons in the main window that take you directly to relevant websites for more information on other related matters.
Some of the changes to the program are a result of changes to the online resources used to find the information the program needs – for example, the Early Day Motions information has been dropped (for now) because the site that was being interrogated for that no longer appears to work. This has been replaced with a Petitions option, which looks up the most popular petitions for your constituency.
The program can be downloaded from the Kevsoft website. You will also need a working internet connection and a Wget installed, because the information MPData+ presents to you is looked up online on the fly.
If you find this application – or any of Kev’s software – useful, why not bung him a reward, or opt for a bit of merch?
