The Tories released an iPhone app this week, snappily named The Conservative Party General Election App (App Store link). It’s the first part of a push into digital for their General Election campaign. I’m far from being a supporter (more through apathy than morality) but this is an interesting development.

The app uses the not quite original ‘Year For Change’ slogan and light blue colour scheme and, on launch, presents you with five options:

1. Where we stand – policies broken down by different areas
2. Latest news – blog post style news snippets
3. Call a friend – phone someone in your address book
4. Swing-o-meter – a visual representation of the possible election results
5. Donate – links to donate over the phone or online

There are also buttons that link out for you to follow their profiles on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The swing-o-meter functionality is actually pretty cool. It makes use of the accelerometer; you tilt the phone to show the different percentage swings in parliament towards a Conservative majority, it even promises live election results come the big day. A clever use of the tech!

But the ‘call a friend’ functionality is a little disturbing. The premise is this; you call someone from your address book (displayed in the app), chat with them about politics and the Conservatives (yawn!) then report back to the app their name, address and voting intention. All this data collected is then used by the Tories for local campaigning. It’s a bit big brother if you ask me!

This app might be the start of a digital revolution in politics, try it out but remember; vote your own mind!