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No10 man’s blog raised at PMQs

With civil servants’ blogging habits such a hot topic, I can’t avoid mentioning the reference casually dropped into PMQs by David Cameron this afternoon. There is a new strategist, a man called David Muir. Yes, I have done a bit of research—he is the chief strategist and on the internet he has listed his favourite book. [...] read on »

Next WordPress release looking great

I downloaded the first ‘Release Candidate’ version of WordPress version 2.5 with a sense of trepidation. New functionality often means added complexity. But I’m happy to report, my fears were unfounded. It looks fantastic. The most striking change is the colour scheme: the ‘classic’ dark blue style is now joined by a more chilled, muted option [...] read on »

The hunt for Civil Serf continues

It looks like I wasn’t the only e-gov person to get an email this afternoon from the Daily Mail, asking if I knew who Civil Serf was. No, I don’t. And given the treatment which the Mail handed out to DFID’s Owen Barder, I wouldn’t be inclined to tell them, even if I did. But [...] read on »

Nine Lords a-blogging

Very interesting to see the horrendously-branded Lords Of The Blog, a new group blog co-written by nine peers, each promising a couple of items per week. Prime mover Lord (Clive) Soley writes in his introductory post: MP’s and Peers need to find new ways of engaging with the public. A blog is not the complete answer [...] read on »

Civil Serf suspended

I’m reluctant to write this solely on the basis of a piece in the Mail (on Sunday?), but it seems Civil Serf has been identified and suspended by DWP. Investigators hunting for the blogger summoned her to a meeting last week, when it is understood that she denied responsibility. She was told she was being [...] read on »

BBC finally embedding video

Steve Herrman, writing on the BBC’s Editors blog, is absolutely right: the move to video embedded on the page is ‘quite a significant moment’ for the Beeb’s website. Except that, judging by the first visible example, it’s got issues. It’s either failing to buffer, or returning an error message. As explained in more detail on the [...] read on »

Civil Serf: Simon’s video for BBC

I got an email from the team behind BBC News 24’s Your News show during the week, asking if I’d record a contribution as part of a piece they’re planning about - guess what - Civil Serf. So here it is, as a Puffbox first-play exclusive. Nothing you probably don’t know already, but hey - a [...] read on »

Civil service blogging guidelines

I guess you might see it as kneejerk; I prefer to see it as responsive. The Civil Serf affair has brought the matter of civil servants blogging to a head, and now is absolutely the right time to work out the ground rules. At lunchtime, Tom Watson publishes a ‘for starters’ list of bullet points on [...] read on »

Minister’s ‘regret’ at Civil Serf affair

Full credit to Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson for his extremely measured and well-balanced take on the Civil Serf story. Tom was speaking at Tower 08, a major CO-hosted conference on Transformational Government - and has posted his speech on his long-established (and often highly party-political) blog. For the record, the speech isn’t yet showing [...] read on »

Tom Watson’s ‘mashed up’ speech

OK, I’m an idiot. The lengthy and fair-minded piece I wrote this morning about a speech by Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne at the RSA was a year late. Osborne made some interesting points about the need ‘to recast the political settlement for the digital age.’ And now today, there’s an email doing the rounds (see [...] read on »