A blogging Secretary of State?
There’s an interesting reference in Peter Hain’s speech to his cabinet colleague David Milliband – “In England one of the biggest challenges is addressing what my colleague David Milliband recently referred to as the power gap: the gap between politicians and the people at neighbourhood level. That is where people need to be engaged. That is where we have the potential to make a real difference.”.. as previously reported in the Sunday Times.. that’s a gap that David Milliband seems to have decided can be bridged by blogging
As Hain goes on to say, politicians need to be “innovative and creative” -
We are ahead of the game here. We have developed a system that makes sense from a service delivery point of view and ultimately from a consumer perspective. Of course politicians are concerned that such a system might be remote from people, that there might be a loss of local identity. But that is the challenge for politicians, to ensure that this doesn’t happen. They need to think of ways of engaging with their electorate other than through traditional bureaucratic structures. They need to be innovative and creative. Perhaps the young people here today will have some ideas about how this might be achieved.[emphasis added]
Will we see Peter Hain following his own advice? He might need more than a Sluggeresque ‘Play the Ball’ rule..
Perhaps Permatanned Pete might start by actually heeding parents about his attempts to make our schools as bad as those in England.
Is there a Brass Neck of the Year Award we could give this wretched creep? Not exactly an innovative suggestion, but a decent enough form of communication in its own right.
Keep your eye on the Ball please Watchman!!
Slugger (and Mick) gets a nice little mention in today’s Irish Times re. blogging in Ireland.