David Miliband is here now -

http://www.davidmiliband.defra.gov.uk/blogs/ministerial_blog/about_author.aspx

That link works!

Here in The Netherlands, Gerritt Zalm, the deputy prime minister, has been blogging for years. Many other government ministers also blog. There’s the Canadian example Terry mentioned. Then you have EC commissioners like Margot Wallstrom whose posts regularly attract loads of comments (including all the EU skeptics who come out of the woodwork each time) many of which she does address in ongoing posts.

Say what you will about a) the quality of any politican’s writings and b) the level of engagement they may or may not have with interested readers, the fact that political leaders are using this medium is, generally speaking, a good thing. Transparency - I’m all for it.

Inevitable that someone would look at the cost, Dave and Stuart! And inevitable that someone else would say they’d do it for less. One comment in the Guy Fawkes post suggesting Miliband use Blogger. Good grief! I agree with you, Stuart, re integration/cost comparisons with a corporate blog.

And that’s a very interesting point, Stuart, re would Miliband continue if he moved jobs. Time will tell of course, but I’d be very surprised if he didn’t. His thinking style as expressed in his posts indicate to me that this is a man who’s a natural and open communicator. I bet his efforts prove to be a stimulus for others in central government to do something themselves. I’d bet others are already, privately and internally, just as Miliband started out.

As for Boris Johnson’s blog, it’s quite a wheeze even though he doesn’t write much of it himself.

Podcasts are next, if the Blair/Cameron experiments in January are any indicator.

Neville Hobson tells us that David Miliband, Britain’s Minister of Communities and Local Government, has started to blog. His blog is tied into his Ministry’s website. So, he is clearly posting as the Minister, not as a Member of Parliamen…

It’s a shame that Boris has allowed himself to become embroiled in this as he has an absolutely fantastic blog - cracking, whizzo - as Boris might say!

There is also the question of cabinet reshuffles. My money is on David getting a better job very soon but the blog is part of the ODPM web site and thus tied to the position. Will David start a new blog and will the new person keep his blog going? You’ll notice the address is ministerial_blog.