puffbox

DWP’s ‘what’s new’ policy

It's coming to something when the editorial policy of a single page on a government department's website is the subject of a parliamentary question. Naturally, the Tories' shadow secretary of state for Work & Pensions has a particularly keen interest in new additions to the DWP site's What's New page. The top of said page says [...] read on »

Mash! Mash! Mash!

The latest move from Tom Watson's Power Of Information Taskforce, effectively a big BBC Backstage-style government mashup competition, is a master stroke. The Power of Information Taskforce want to hear your ideas on how to reuse, represent, mashup or combine the information the government holds to make it useful. ... We will take the best ideas [...] read on »

Lammy’s lessons from Obama

Labour MP David Lammy's speech to the Fabian Society on Monday wasn't the first to say 'we need to learn lessons from the Obama campaign', and it won't be the last. But it's a well-constructued speech, and well worth a read. He notes the eventual success of two 'outsider' candidates, prepared to take risks - on [...] read on »

Guido-Tom Watson consensus on gov jobs?

One senses there's not a lot of love between Guido Fawkes and Tom Watson. So it's all the more remarkable that, within a few days, they've effectively reached an identical conclusion on the need for a better approach to public sector job advertising. A week ago, Tom wrote a blog post noting the lack of a [...] read on »

Hansard back to 1880s

One of those 'hidden gem' websites: Hansard 1804-2004, which currently features the text of parliamentary business back to 1885. It's not absolutely comprehensive, and the scanning isn't error-free, but it's amazing to have all this data at your fingertips. It's very interesting to note how the site's been set up: This site has been sponsored by [...] read on »