Following on from all the posts about David Miliband, the UK government minister, who blogs direct from his department, I read with amusement (and a pinch of salt) about Tony Blair’s answer to New Labour’s poor results in the local…

I posted a couple of spontaneous comments on Neville Hobson’s blog at the weekend after he posted about the government minister, David Miliband, pulling his allegedly £6,000 blog after he was promoted to a different department in the post-local elect…

But I’m digressing!

Miliband posted yesterday afternoon about his move, at 13:39 BST according to the timestamp in the RSS feed. At 20:17, he posted saying he had an interim blog up and running.

What was especially good about that was that it’s the same RSS feed, so ensuring continuity and eliminating the chances of losing subscribers. And the IT folk (presumably) were able to switch all his content to a new location at the Dept for Environment website, even if it might be a temprary one.

So 10/10 for tech foresight

But knowing that Ministers don’t stay ministers for ever someone should have thought about what to do when Miliband moved on. It shows a lack of forward planning. But maybe another minister will take over Miliband’s old blog site??

But let’s say it did cost 6K. How is that figure made up? Hardware costs in providing a server, perhaps? Paying consultants’ fees to advise on setting it up? Licensing software? None of these things are out of the ordinary whether it’s for a blog by a politician (and so, presumably, taxpayers’ money was spent) or by a listed commercial organization (shareholders’ money if we stretch this analagy a bit).

I haven’t seen similar criticisms relating to, say, the amount of money government departments spend on printed brochures, etc. Or the costs of travelling around and making speeches. Or the cost of maintaining a press office and issuing press releases. All part of communication, just as the blog is.

I wouldn’t be surprised is there was a cost involved in enabling the blog to continue as part of a different government department.

To me, it will be money well spent if it enables David Miliband to continue blogging!

I am a fan of David and his bloggings efforts, but…

I find it amusing that David’s blog cost the taxpayer about £6,000 to set-up and this money was spent on intergrating the blog software and design into the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s (ODPM) website (the department in which he worked until yesterday).

To find out that his blog will no longer be available at the ODPM’s URL is a bit rich!

One question is worth answering (and I know David reads your blog) is: will it cost another £6,000 to set up his blog at the Environment Agency?

10/10 for blogging efforts; nil points for technological foresight!!