by Simon Winchester

About the author: Simon Winchester is a foreign correspondent for the Spectator, a weekly British magazine covering current events.

If in 1994 it was merely modish to be seen speeding down the information superhighway, in 1995 it is fast becoming essential, at least in America. Hitch your wagon to cyberspace, says the Speaker of the House, Mr Newt Gingrich, and your democracy will become absolute, with all America joined together for the first time into one vast and egalitarian town meeting.

Mr Gingrich made this all clear in January 1995 when he unveiled a new system for bringing Congress to the electronically connected populace, which in honour of President Jefferson is called ‘Thomas’. Anyone with a computer and a modem at home or in the office (or even up in the skies, courtesy of USAir...