So, will new Foreign Secretary David Miliband continue the blog he started early last year while at DEFRA?
According to political blogger Ellee Seymour:
There is a chance that David Miliband might write a Foreign Office blog once he has settled into his new post as Foreign Secretary. It has not been ruled out, according to Ross Ferguson, Director of the Hansard Society’s eDemocracy programme, who I met yesterday.
There is no reason why it cannot be done with sensitivity and regard to confidentiality, while at the same time facilitating an open and public debate on foreign affairs.
It will provide an interactive platform to discuss Iraq and Iran, Israel and Africa, as well as our relationship with Washington, and so much more.
Still speculation, albeit now with some credibility if not authority.
Keep an eye on Miliband’s (old) blog. And Ellee’s.
2 responses to “David Miliband’s potential interactive platform”
It would be brilliant if he did — and — could keep the relative candor his blog has had.
I fear, though, that the Foreign Ministry is not a place where “relative” candor is an option.
I believe it was The Atlantic, a US monthly, that described last year why we citizens shouldn’t want to know the “truth” from our senior officials at every juncture; in fact, we would be better off being lied to at times.
Certainly, I’d rather a Foreign Minister say “We are making progress with the kidnappers in Golfolandastan”, if that is what the kidnappers need to hear to make progress, than the truth: “The stubborn clods won’t move.”
So their blogging would need to be restricted to the mundane (though no less interesting, mind you). “This is why we have fewer embassies than before”… “This is a day in the life of a foreign minister….” … “Jeez, Tony never shook the rump of his pants when he stood up at Question Time…. what’s Gordon doing?”
But… that could be a start.
Hi Neville,
Got to say that I find this kinda incredible.
What’s the relationship of Ross Ferguson and Hansard to the Foreign Secretary? The fact that he is a credible person doesn’t make his opinion credible in regard to a topic he may just be speculating about, no?
Maybe I’m missing something here but this seems likes a whole lot of nothing.
After all, take another look at the number of conditionals in the first sentence of the original post…
“There is a chance that David Miliband might write a Foreign Office blog…..”
best
matthew