Puffbox

Did you know the House of Lords is currently inviting opinions on how it, and Parliament generally, can relate better to the public? No? Neither did I, which kind of proves something in itself. It's the Lords' Information Committee, it's called People And Parliament... and it closes in two days. The deadline for full written submissions [...] read on »

Who said there were no 'senior strategic web roles' in government? The Cabinet Office has just issued a job advert, looking for someone to 'develop a strategy and implementation plan for extending digital engagement across Government', and 'act as head of profession for civil servants working on digital engagement'. It's a Senior Civil Service Pay [...] read on »

The Committee on Standards in Public Life has published its latest survey of public attitudes towards public servants; and if anything, there's a slightly more negative tone to this set of results, compared to previous surveys in 2004 and 2006. For those of us who see engagement as a key area, there are some interesting numbers. [...] read on »

I never 'got' June Sarpong MBE as a TV presenter - she always seemed (at least) half-asleep to me. Her elevation to the status of Question Time panellist wasn't met with universal acclaim. But to her immense credit, she does seem genuinely passionate about bringing young people, specifically young women, into politics - as the [...] read on »

I blame the Tories. They brought us 'A Kick in the Balls', an attempt to make political capital from some (apparently) frank exchanges round the Cabinet table, with a Flash beat-em-up game aimed squarely at the viral market. Tekken it wasn't. (In fact, playable it wasn't.) Now, remarkably, we have Super Political Boxing for your mobile [...] read on »

I've always been a big fan of Mark Kermode, movie critic, broadcaster and visiting fellow at the University of Southampton. Prior to podcasting, I would schedule my Fridays to allow me to hear his Five Live segments with Simon Mayo. And yet curiously, I'm not really a movie fan (although I sometimes think I could [...] read on »

'Staying on top of modern politics has become a full time job,' declares the long-awaited PoliticsHome on its About page. 'Things move too fast: it is too much for any single person to track.' Unfortunately, the same can be said about the site itself: load up the homepage, and a torrent of headlines hits you [...] read on »