Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Clicking with voters •Social Media

I've been looking at how it's going for the three main parties as they raise cash online. They were hoping that voters would point, click and pay.

We talked to all three parties. The Lib Dems say they received a 700 percent increase in the number of donations after the first TV debate. It was mostly in the form of small donations - £5 or £10 a person. They didn't give us an overall figure.

The Conservative Party says its raised about $800, 000 online, and the Labour Party, more than $400, 000.

Compare that to what U.S. President Barack Obama raised in 2008. He got about half a million dollars in online donations.

We chatted to Joe Rospars, Obama's digital advisor for his campaign, who says all the parties have been running a "strong traditional campaign," and that "the online stuff is somewhat of an afterthought and not and central to the relationships they have with voters or supporters."

To be fair, Obama had two years to campaign. The British candidates have had only six weeks. We also chatted to Facebook's director of European Policy, who used to be an MP himself. He says even so, there are still ways the candidates could have done more to click with possible donors.

They could have done a better job of more closely tying their "fundraising to specific events and specific targets that people can reach."

For the next election political parties may need to sharpen their cyber style to tap into more money on the Web.

Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Clicking with voters •Social Media

A new online game called Downing Street Fighter will let you slug it out.

London, England - If you're looking for a way to vent your anger and frustration with any of the three main candidates I've got just the thing for you.

An online game called Downing Street Fighter will let you slug it out. A left hook, a right jab, and uppercut with three players.  Just take your pick.

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Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Clicking with voters •Social Media

Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Clicking with voters •Social Media

London, England – Oh Gordon. When you've got a mic on, the tapes are always rolling. C'mon. It's being-in-the-public-eye 101. It's easy to just forget the small, black clipped mic, I know. But days away from the big election day, a major mess-up.

Calling a voter Brown just met with a "bigoted woman" on tape could be costly. He looked two-faced, and out of touch with voters at a moment he needs to show just how in touch he is. Unfortunately for Labour this also changes the news agenda for the day and focus on it could be costly. Could it dash Labour's chances at the polls? The media having been waiting for a juicy election muck up all campaign long, and this is it. Sky TV is wall-to-wall with this coverage. It was their mic he drove away with.

Brown's apologised to the now-famous Gillian Duffy, on the phone and then in person, at her home. Was he wearing a mic for the apology?

An attack on colleagues or rivals caught on tape may not be as bad as an attack on a voter. I see some tweets saying Bigotgate lost Brown their vote. @sara_sands says "Gordon Brown should resign in my opinion. He is an absolute disaster." From @Pavideo: "Brown lost pensioners vote after calling her bigoted."

Some on #bigotedwoman are complaining that Brown apologised to Duffy. They say it gives credence to her negative views on immigrants. They're telling the PM, he was right, why go back on it.

He has to because it's too close to the election not to do public damage control on this. Otherwise his political death knell tolls.

Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Clicking with voters •Social Media

Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Social Media

Labour leader Gordon Brown in Milton Keynes, southern England, takes questions via Twiter (Getty)

London, England - I did a bunch of live shots today and the thrust was that social media is not setting the election agenda here in the UK, as many previously thought it might.

I interviewed media expert Roy Greenslade of City University, London, who says social media has been more "reactive and hyperactive" but not that influential right now because it's responding to the agenda set by traditional UK media.

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Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Clicking with voters •Social Media

London, England - I'm back from my ash extended holiday in Africa and back on the social media beat for the UK elections. Don Riddell was telling me about how British voters that may have been stranded came back shocked to find a totally different and more energised election landscape after Nick Clegg got a whopping boost from the first debate.

I watched the second debate in Kenya and followed the mostly negative comments on Twitter. The third debate's on the economy.  The number of people who don't have jobs in the UK is 2.5 million. That's the highest since 1994. The numbers also show that youth unemployment is also rising.

Whether you're in the UK or elsewhere around the world I want to know which candidate you think will create more jobs. Send me a tweet @zainverjee or comment on this blog and I may use it on the air ahead of Thursday's debate. You can also upload video comments to CNN's iReport. I'd love to hear from you.

Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Social Media •The Economy

London, England - There’s a certain pleasure in watching someone with ambition to make it big in politics being brought back down to earth by their own reckless behaviour.

Prospective Labour MP Stuart MacLennan became the first casualty of the General Election campaign today as he was sacked over offensive posts about voters, politicians and celebrities he made on Twitter.

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Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Social Media

London, England - Let the backlash begin! Just minutes after British Members of Parliament passed the Digital Economy Bill, Whatdebill.org organized more than 4,200 people in 12 hours to tweet their anger.

MPs had to rush it through the House of Commons because parliament here will be dissolved on Monday ahead of the elections.

What's got people annoyed about this bill is that it gives Internet service providers the power to punish people who watch unauthorized copyrighted material on their computers.

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Posted by: CNN Anchor and Correspondent Zain Verjee
Filed under: Election •Social Media