Puffbox

It isn’t every day you get writers like Stephen Fry and JK Rowling, Oscar-winning film producers and Nobel Prize-winning scientists contributing to a government website. But it does happen.

Governance of Britain is a site I built a year ago, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. Plans and circumstances have changed a few times since then, which frankly haven’t helped with establishing the site; and there’s word that things might be changing again. But it contains a few features and functions which I’m particularly proud of.

This week saw us uploading a clutch of new contributions from high-profile public figures on what it means to be British. We’ve already had pieces from, among others, Trevor Phillips, Dame Evelyn Glennie and Nicole Cooke (pre-Beijing, by the way), as well as what you might call ‘the great and good’. A couple of them are even in video form. Comments are open; it’ll be interesting if such ‘citizen-friendly’ material can generate large volumes of feedback.

Each contributor has approached the subject in a different way. Some are short, some much longer. Some are very personal, others clearly ‘the official line’ from an organisation they represent. Some are quite academic, others quite provocative. Well worth a quick click through. I’d particularly draw your attention to Lord Puttnam‘s video: a one minute piece to camera, well-delivered by a natural communicator.