Appealing to the masses

Just as one leader is about to make himself more appealing with the aid of voluntary work, another aims to make an appeal to the masses via a more direct appeal straight to the heart of party sympathisers (and mainly Welsh speaking).

N.B. No Labour AM has formally declared they intend to stand for the party's leadership. But Carwyn Jones, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney AM Huw Lewis and Gower AM and Health Minister Edwina Hart are all thought to be preparing campaigns.

Stay tuned but don't hold your breath over Summer.

Stage Management: exit stage left (from London)

Today, the Welsh Government (that will sour some faces in certain parts of Wales) comes to Wales.

Gordon Brown and his ministers are heading to Cardiff for the first meeting of a UK government cabinet in Wales, which has been likened to stage management by opposition parties. At the very least they've demonstrated to the Welsh Assembly Government how to make a big policy announcement.

Revolving Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said:

The Wales of the 21st Century has hi-tech industry, world class centres of innovation and a diverse talented workforce that is split almost 50-50 men and women.

Today will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase what Wales has to offer to the rest of the UK and the world.

This is the first time that the cabinet has met in Wales. I am sure that my colleagues will leave Wales today eager to spread the word about what a dynamic and innovative place Wales is.

Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said:

The prime minister has barely visited Wales since he took office - and since Conservatives beat Labour in Wales at last month's European elections we're surprised he wants to come at all.

This is a shallow attempt to pretend that Wales matters to him. If Gordon Brown thinks (the) visit will persuade people to forget that Labour is to blame for the difficulties facing Wales today then he will be very disappointed.

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams described the event as stage managed and said:

...it would not replace real engagement with Welsh communities and meaningful reform of our damaged democracy.

Let them [John Prescott] eat cake

He may no longer hold high office, but that doesn't stop John Prescott shouting from the roof of the 'Go Fourth' battle bus that he's still proud to be Labour.

In the last 11 years, our borrowing has created more than 3 million jobs and allowed more people to get on the property ladder.

Today I'm delighted to have seen clear red water between Labour and the Tories. The choice is between a government that will do all it can to help the poor and the hard working through these difficult times and a Thatcherite Conservative Party that would do absolutely nothing.

I can't wait to tell that to each and every voter from now until when the General Election is called.

So tell our your friends and workmates how important today was. We're going to have to fight for that Fourth Term but by god, we've got something to fight for!

Take care,

JP

Carl Sargeant, Labour Chief Whip in the National Assembly also seems to be full of support for the Westminster package and a union man through and through by commenting

As Unison say - "This is a serious package for serious times. Brown and Darling have shown their strength, courage and determination to face the economic challenge head on. Their extensive experience has kept them in tune with what the country and business needs."

The rest of us are more than slightly concerned that this is the last action of a political party that is going for broke in an attempt to 'Go Fourth' and hold on to power.

In reality, if it has all the appearances of working, it will then work for Labour under the banner of tough-times ahead. Or as we read it - I'll lend you £20bn now but will expect it back with plenty of interest after the next election. If it doesn't work, the Conservatives will be left to pick up the pieces.

I guess Gordon's premiership has nothing to lose at this stage in his greatest gamble to date, or as the Conservatives have described it - the Prime Minister's promise to end boom and bust had proved "one of the greatest deceits ever told to the British public".

[Pippa Wagstaff is currently on a blogging break]

Return of the Blair casts a shadow over Brown

Tony Blair is to co-host a summit on the global financial crisis with President Nicolas Sarkozy in January, in a move likely to infuriate Gordon Brown.

Mr Blair's office has been in in touch with the Prime Minister to invite him to the Paris conference, but Mr Brown has so far refused to accept the invitation, with an official saying last night he was still considering his "diary commitments".

Sources said that Mr Brown was "relaxed" about the event taking place. However, any attempt by Mr Blair to overshadow Mr Brown's efforts on the world stage is likely to anger Downing Street aides. He has rebuilt his political reputation by claiming to lead the world in tackling the global financial crisis – most recently with a "road map" for financial reform he presented at a G20 summit last weekend.

But he may now have to contend with Mr Blair taking on a formal role in the global response to the economic crisis.

The summit will come days before Barack Obama is sworn in as US President on Jan 20, and threatens to upstage a follow-up G20 summit that Mr Brown is expected to host in London in April.

Government deserves to fall on data loss alone

Two reports have concluded that no individual member of staff was to blame for last year's child benefit data loss.

Reports by the Independent Police Complaints Commission on the original data loss, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (the 'Poynter' review) on the wider question of data protection, revealed systematic and institutionalised failings within the HMRC department.

The Poynter review identified low morale in HMRC; said there needs to be a better focus on engaging with staff; and recommended HMRC should consider redeploying staff to improve services and increase tax yield rather than continuing with job cuts.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling announced at the time that £155m will be needed over three years to implement the Poynter recommendations. But, unfortunately, no new money is being provided by the Treasury.

Government data loss

[Pippa Wagstaff is currently on a blogging break]

The forgotten by-election

With the combined excitement of Bonfire Night and a sweeping change in American politics, we seem to have forgotten the probable done deal by-election in Scotland - Voters are going to the polls in Glenrothes to choose a new MP.

Labour is defending a majority of 10,664 in the Fife constituency which was made vacant by the death of John MacDougall in August.

The polls opened at 0700 GMT and will close at 2200 GMT. The result should be known by the early hours of Friday.

The turnout at the last election in 2005 was 56.1%. The seat borders Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.

Candidates:

• Morag Balfour, Scottish Socialists
• Maurice Golden, Conservative
• Peter Grant, SNP
• Lindsay Roy, Labour
• Kris Seunarine, UKIP
• Harry Wills, Liberal Democrats
• Louise McLeary, Solidarity
• Jim Parker, Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party

Update (10:04 November, 7 2008):

Labour has won the Glenrothes by-election, comfortably holding off a challenge from the SNP. Lindsay Roy was elected the new MP with a majority of 6,737 over the SNP's Peter Grant, although the Nationalists increased their vote by almost 4,500.

"This is a substantial setback for Alex Salmond", Brian Taylor BBC Scotland political editor

Priority Talent Pool not just a thing of the past

TAXPAYERS are bankrolling an invisible army of civil servants in Whitehall who have no jobs but still draw a salary.

Up to £1million a week is spent supporting the ghost jobs of more than 1,700 redundant workers who are placed in a Priority Talent Pool and keep getting paid until a plum new post comes up.

Despite Gordon Brown’s declaration of war on Whitehall waste the number of phantom employees has trebled in a year, pushing the total annual bill for taxpayers to £50million.

The admission from ministers comes as Britain slides into recession, thousands of workers in the private sector are being laid off every week and millions more are worried about their jobs.

Give the Assembly Government some credit where it's due with its 'first-to-do' culture. They were the first to do this. At least the UK Government has the decency to call it a 'Priority Talent Pool' and not just a 'Central Postings Pool'. The Assembly could learn a little from positive spin, but not much.

Plaid peers at the back of the queue

Peter Mandelson will return to Parliament today when he takes his seat in the House of Lords.

His elevation to the title of Lord Mandelson [Baron Mandelson of Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham] follows his remarkable Cabinet comeback – the second of his career – in Gordon Brown’s reshuffle last week.

The controversial New Labour figure has given up his job as EU Trade Commissioner to take over from John Hutton as Business Secretary.

Following an introductory ceremony in the House on Monday, letters patent detailing his title will be read out.

In addition to Peter Mandelson, Susan Campbell, David Pannick, Stephen Carter and Paul Myners, will be in line to be raised to the peerage in the near future.

What happens when you oppose the House of Lords for most of your political party's life? - straight to the back of the queue [Dafydd Wigley, Janet Davies and Eurfyl ap Gwilym]

Could blogging be blamed for another scalp?

I've always enjoyed reading the blog of former Labour Minister Tom Harris MP. Mainly because not many ministers blog, and certainly not in a down to earth way. Tom speculates that his recent sacking, with partial dignity, may have been partly down to the fact that he blogs - something of a common occurrence here in Wales.

Tom has decided to post the original version of an article he wrote for the Mail on Sunday 'From ministerial Mondeo to back bench' on his blog. It was commissioned from him on the subject of how a minister is sacked and adjusts to his new life, a subject he feels eminently qualified to discuss after the recent Cabinet reshuffle. Usually we have to wait for a book or newspaper gossip to read about such events and it makes interesting reading.

Here's two small sections:

“This is the Number 10 switchboard. Can you hold for the prime minister?”

Well, there aren’t too many answers to that question, are there? I walked downstairs clutching the phone to my ear and went into the kitchen where my wife, Carolyn, was making a late dinner. “Number 10,” I mouthed silently at her, and she immediately switched off the blaring radio.

The received wisdom about reshuffles is that if you’re going to get sacked, it’s done early on in the day. Having heard nothing so far, I was pretty confident that a call this late in the day would surely mean promotion. I knew I had done a good job at transport. I also knew that Minister of State in that department was now vacant. Or immigration, perhaps? Europe even?

And with such optimistic expectancy did I take the call from the prime minister. The conversation was brief: he was bringing new people into the government, and that meant some people would have to leave. My heart sank, my stomach lurched and I made a “thumbs-down” gesture to Carolyn, who mouthed a word that ladies shouldn’t really utter.

The most common theory put forward for my sacking is, inevitably, my blog, And another thing... In some ways, this is comforting: no-one really believes I was bad at my job so there must be another reason, and the blog is a prime suspect, especially after the whole “Why is everyone so bloody miserable?” debacle.

I started it in March this year because I was concerned that right wing blogs like Iain Dale’s and Guido Fawkes’s were dominating the market, and I felt there weren’t enough Labour voices out there.

Few people were even aware I wrote a blog until “Why is everyone so bloody miserable” [146 comments] was published in June. What started off as a fairly thoughtful piece about the difficulty of achieving happiness in a material world was twisted by a Conservative front bencher to try to make it look like I was belittling people’s real difficulties in coping with the current economic climate. I found myself having to defend and explain what I had written to hostile journalists and broadcasters. It was a sharp reminder that, even if the public aren’t reading what ministers blog, journalists and political opponents are.

Even then, I received no criticism from No. 10; my boss at the time, Ruth Kelly, simply asked how I was coping with the media scrum.

And you can go over my posts with a fine tooth comb and you won’t find anything there that’s off-message or critical of government policy.

One day of the year when you can be seen as special

It just happens to be a long solitary walk to retirement and a handsome pension waiting for little achievement, and an even lower public and political respectability from your peers and critics, for one person.

It also happens to be the the First Minister's 69th birthday tomorrow. This blog wishes him a happy birthday. Put your feet up on the office sofa with your glass of orange juice to read your papers. Delegate more to others for just one day. Sit back and enjoy the one day of the year that you can be seen as special.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good.

I have some bad news!

Not only has someone summed up your ministerial career in a way that makes you Wales' very own Gordon Brown:

Damn right: Rhodri Morgan is the biggest disappointment to happen to Welsh Labour devolutionary hopes since Ron Davies had his moment of madness. At least
Ron hasn't given up on politics, which Rhodri clearly has. They sat on him over the Richard Commission, they undermined his ministership at every turn. He was so demoralised and knackered he had to sit back and watch while London Labour
launched its viciously anti-Welsh hacks, and now he's waiting to retire so he can watch some golf. What a waste of undoubted talent. The man has become invisible and irrelevant.

The party had high hopes of him, those of us at least who thought the future was devolution. He's like Gordon Brown: spent all his time wanting the job, then when he gets it is a big soggy squib.

Don't be downhearted, it gets better. In August I reported that Rhodri's Facebook group "Rhodri Morgan Appreciation Society" had remained static in membership. September 2007, 20 members; August 2008, 20 members. There's good news in that the membership has risen to 22 in time for his birthday.

I hear you say there must be a BUT.

The bad news is that Welsh Labour's Communications Officer Martyn Williams, and Luke Ellis 'number two' of Minister Carwyn Jones have both left the society.

Life can sometimes be difficult. Congratulations must be given to Assembly Members, Alun Davies and Joyce Watson for remaining members.

Happy Birthday for tomorrow, First Minister.

A towering figure... of 5' 11''

Gordon Brown's wife Sarah stepped centre stage at the Labour conference to introduce his keynote speech.

It almost seemed like a mother introducing her son to a group of friends in an act of pride (that could easily have been you Pippa), building him up in only the way a mother can. Or even having to defend his actions before a headmaster after being called into school - defending him to the utmost of her ability, and with no flicker of doubt

She said she was "so proud" of her husband's achievements and praised his "motivation" to help people.

I'm so proud that every day I see him motivated to work for the best interests of people all around the country. Sometimes in a world where there is so much to do we don't perhaps have enough time to celebrate what has been done.

She went on to introduce Mr Brown, "my husband, the leader of the Labour Party, your prime minister" - who made mention in his own speech about critics of his personal style, amid poor opinion poll ratings for Labour and rebel calls for a leadership challenge.

What is it with the women in his life? A towering figure indeed.

What of Gordon's turn? Garbo summed it up well with:

Well, it was a very good speech… by Brown’s standards. And it has put the doubters in the background… for now. Brown is no Blair and he is no Cameron when it comes to public speaking, but yesterday he was better than the Gordon Brown we are used to dozing through.

This was not a speech aimed at the electorate. It was not an attempt to turn the polls round over night. It was aimed directly at the party. The snipers. It was a speech that would reassert his authority and cut down any “novices” who were pretenders to his crown. And, to a certain extent at least, it has worked

N.B. I have asked Pippa Wagstaff if I can mention her son in a post. I wouldn't want her to accuse me of using him as a post prop - he's a person! She mentioned having the same pride when dropping off her son at his first day at nursery.

Whatever it takes is too little, too late

Gordon Brown has opened Labour's annual conference in Manchester with a pledge to do "whatever it takes" to sort out Britain's financial system.

One delegate stood up to urge party unity - a reference to the 13 Labour MPs who have publicly called for a leadership election [He'll be getting something worthwhile when Gordon leaves Downing street!] - and in a show of unity from the platform the prime minister was praised by several cabinet colleagues who said voters would not understand "navel gazing" at a time of economic turbulence.

Although there is a tendency to blame Wales' Labour problems on 'New Labour' rather than Welsh Labour, First Minister Rhodri Morgan, a long-standing ally of Mr Brown’s, has recently said:

I have been astonished by the outbursts of quite a small handful of people, MPs including one Minister of State. To think that you would want, in the middle of the worst financial storm I can remember, to change leader is absolutely insane.

I really do question their judgement, I think they are quite wrong. We need to batten down the hatches and deal with this crisis that’s affected the entire world. This is a global financial crisis, and this is just a diversion from the difficult issues we need to deal with.

Never a truer word has been spoken. Why change a leader during a crisis? If that principle was packaged, stamped with a daffodil/dragon motif and transported to Wales, Rhodri would've been replaced several times over by now.

True to form and still hiding his head in the sand - although the sand is further afield than usual - Mr Morgan said it was clear voters were blaming the Government for the economic downturn.

It’s always the government’s fault. It’s an iron law of politics, if times are tough, you can’t get a mortgage, banks are toppling in America, you get a feel-bad factor and people blame the government.

The general public think more deeply than than Mr Morgan. If you patronise us, we'll patronise you. Off to sleep with a cup of cocoa and chocolate digestive (without the chocolate of course) and dream of better times.

Thinking about it, make that a glass of water (tap, not bottle in Cathays Park), as you made so much of your 'life changing moment' last year. Bring on the new man with fresh and reconstituted ideas.

Brown and Potter: The stuff of Children's Stories

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has donated £1m to the Labour Party, the party has announced. Ms Rowling said she was motivated by Labour's record on child poverty and opposed a Conservative plan to give tax breaks to married couples.

According to the BBC, her donation will boost Gordon Brown as he tries to calm unrest among party members at Labour's annual conference.

Just as other political parties are burning their Potter books in disgust, a new print-run has been made to keep the British public content.

• Harry Potter and the Chancellor's Stoney Face


• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Commercial Crisis


• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of his own Destiny


• Harry Potter and the Gordon in line to be Fired


• Harry Potter and the Order of the Public Boot


• Harry Potter and the Half-Brained Schemes


• Harry Potter and the Deathly Silence among his MPs

Update: Tory Bear has more on this and sticks his paw where it hurts. So does Iain Dale with his "Arise, Baroness Rowling of Hogwarts". We should all try and stop being so cynical ;)

Leighton jumping ship... again!

Matt Withers from 'Wales on Sunday' in a new post on his blog, 'All aboard the Miliband Express' speculates on

... the growing number of Labourites, seeing the way the prevailing wind is blowing, are being lured by the fresh face, boyish charms and fighting talk of Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Rhodri Morgan thinks any kind of leadership bid would be "suicide". But at least one of his Labour ministers is keen to be intellectually linked to the man known as 'Brains'. Here's a press release sent out by Deputy Regeneration Minister Leighton Andrews today:

LABOUR Minister Leighton Andrews [MW: an outside, outside contender for leader of Welsh Labour] says that that genuine community empowerment must be at the heart of the next phase of devolution.

The Rhondda AM, who co-ordinated the successful Yes for Wales campaign in 1997 will speak of the need for "double devolution" - echoing a phrase first used by Foreign Secretary David Miliband in his role as Environment Secretary in February 2006.

Speaking during a Community Housing Cymru debate at the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff, Mr Andrews will say:"It is not just about transferring law-making powers from Westminster to the Assembly - we should be championing the transfer of more power to our communities as well. Double devolution, in other words."

Gosh - and this from the man who once wrote: "The success of Gordon Brown as the new Prime Minister provides a strong lesson for Welsh Labour on how to renew itself in office seamlessly. We must ensure that we build on the platform that Gordon Brown has built for us."

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or even loose endorsement in this case. If you can switch from one political party to another in order to suit your needs and political outlook, why not from one leader to another within one party?

Reds cleared. Brown pocketed. Not many balls left on the table

This is getting too painful to watch. Similar to an execution, when it takes more than one blow of the axe to sever a head from a body. Sometimes taking several blows, leaving spectators aghast.

The Scottish National Party has pulled off a stunning by-election victory by winning Glasgow East, one of Labour's safest seats, by 365 votes.

The SNP overturned a Labour majority of 13,507 to win with a swing of 22.54%.

The SNP polled 11,277 votes in the contest, while the Tories came third with 1,639 and the Lib Dems, with 915 votes, came fourth.

SNP candidate John Mason said the victory was "off the Richter scale", while Labour expressed disappointment.

It'll take a sacrificial lamb or complete mug to want to take over from Brown before the next election. Labour colleagues will want to let him hang himself, lose the election, and return refreshed with a new leader - All problems blamed on Gordon. New improved Labour returns to fight another day.

One Brown

Welsh Labour's conspicuous absence in Plaid's recent One Wales celebratory video was noted. Yesterday Gordon Brown returned the favour:

Mr. Elfyn Llwyd (Meirionnydd Nant Conwy) (PC): Does the Prime Minister believe that his party’s wilting membership in Wales and my party’s increasing membership in Wales are due to the coalition between Plaid Cymru and Labour in the National Assembly, or to his leadership here in Westminster?

The Prime Minister: The fact that there are 100,000 more jobs in Wales is due to a Labour Government and Labour Members of the Welsh Assembly;the fact that more children have been taken out of poverty in Wales is due to a Labour Government and Labour Members of the Welsh Assembly; and the fact that there are more public services in Wales is due to the funds provided by a Labour Government from here.

Shome mishtake, shurely?

Ask the PM - Submit your questions now!!!

Just when you find yourself at the end of your tether, and feeling the strain from being snowed under in work, you notice an email message that raises a smile.

The Prime Minister has launched a regular initiative, 'Ask the PM', where he will be responding to the most popular questions submitted by the YouTube community. Here's your chance to ask the Prime Minister about whatever is on your mind. Submit your questions now and come back soon to vote on your favourites. The PM will answer the top-voted questions at the end of June.

Gord help us...

Accepting blame and wiping a bloody nose with dignity

David Cornock (BBC) reminds us what selective politicians have been trying to remind themselves and their party after the local elections:

A different blame game

Some respite for Gordon Brown, currently more beleaguered than a relegated Premier League manager. Ken Livingstone isn't the only Labour figure prepared to take responsibility for this month's electoral drubbing rather than blame someone else.

Lynne Neagle chairs the Labour group in the Welsh Assembly. She is also AM for Torfaen, where Labour had a pretty grim day on May 1.

Here's her take on what the elections mean for Welsh Labour:

"The electorate has just told us that we haven’t done enough – and what we have done clearly hasn’t been communicated well enough."

"The very idea that none of what happened in the local elections in Wales has ended up at the door of the Assembly is monumentally worrying – it must make us question just what kind of an impact the institution has made on the Welsh psyche?

"We control education, health, housing, community regeneration – and according to some – we’ve established clear red water between ourselves and an unpopular UK Labour Government.
"And yet on May 1st, the clear red blood of good Welsh Labour councillors ran thicker and faster than their counterparts in England. It is time to take some responsibility.

"Playing the blame game just undermines the value of the Assembly in Wales – and indeed there was little in the results of last week that wasn’t foretold in the Assembly elections of last year. Our reaction to that result has been sluggish, and we’ve paid the price.

"The communities for whom only Labour will ever deliver are tired of waiting for lasting change and they’ve just got that message across in the clearest way possible.

"It takes a strong character to ask for a discussion with the person who has just bloodied your nose – but that is what Welsh Labour must do with the electorate, starting today."

Tony Blair: Love is... A Cruel Mistress

Is there nothing a man wouldn't do for love? The following news story touches the heart on a mild Thursday morning, as the hunt is on for the identity of a mystery Blairite bard who is thought to be a member of Gordon Brown's Cabinet.

At Downing Street upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't Blair,
He wasn't Blair again today,
Oh how I wish he'd go away.

Business Secretary John Hutton was accused by his Tory shadow Alan Duncan of being behind the lines which appeared on the Spectator website. Mr Hutton totally denied the verse was his. "I would write better poetry than that."

The Minister shook his head and looked slightly embarrassed as Mr Duncan teased him that the poem belonged to him. The Tory MP said the poem could only have been penned "by one person" and the "finger of suspicion" pointed at Mr Hutton.
.

During a Commons debate on Post Office closures, he said: "We are told that somewhere in Downing Street, thought to be a member of the Cabinet, there is a poet, a bard. "Looking at the flavour of the language, I think it can only be but one person."

.
Mr Hutton said it was not him, insisting: "Those are absolutely not my words."

Mr Duncan said Mr Hutton had once claimed Gordon Brown would make a "blooming awful prime minister - and I translate for the sake of decency". Total politics at its best.

Civil Servant blogging days may be numbered

A cheeky female civil servant blogger, who has been ridiculing Cabinet members including Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, and taking the mickey out of civil service mandarins, right up to Cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell, appears to have gone to ground after the Sunday Times reported that the hunt for her was on in Whitehall. Her blog, The Civil Serf, has been swiftly taken down.


The Serf, who has been blogging with impunity for four months, claimed to be a 33-year-old who was "just senior enough" in her department to allow her to know what's going on though "not senior enough to attract suspicion".

In a recent blog, she claimed that Alistair Darling was desperate to use his first Budget, coming up on Wednesday, to garner "a cheap headline" even if it meant announcing unaffordable new measures. "High up on the list will be both child poverty and incapability benefit," she wrote.

She nicknames Gordon Brown 'Velcro' because of the many negative stories that have stuck to him. But she reserves her sharpest barbs for Whitehall culture and personnel. "I've received a meeting request that probably deserves a mention in the Guinness Book of Records," she writes. "It is for something called the 'People Action Team' (don't ask) and it is scheduled to last a staggering seven hours... Truly there is no God."

She has also complained about drunken advances from the opposite sex. "Trapped" at a conference in Brighton, she wrote, "I was being chased about by some bloke from the Foreign Office who wouldn't listen to me saying I'm engaged - yuk!"

She also tells how her colleagues are frequently "under-utilised", saying: "I know two people within eight desks of me whose jobs could be deleted overnight with no discernible impact on our performance."

Because of various mentions of Peter Hain before he stood down as Work and Pensions Secretary, it is thought the culprit may work in that department. A source told the Sunday Times that while no one has yet been disciplined, there were suspicions about the blogger's identity.

Update 10 March 2008, 16:39

1. Civil servants to get blog and social networking advice (BBC link)
2. There's a curious comment on this post that suggests, "The first civil servant blogger to be sacked was in Wales, however, no one knows his/her name."