Guido, a scraper and the bottom of the barrel
Guido Fawkes, via Tory Radio, complains about the cost of the person who’s helping out with David Miliband’s blog. Both articles imply in their headlines that £60k is being spent on the civil servant; it is a fraction of this. Firstly, salary and cost to employ are different. Secondly, you need someone who knows whats going on across DEFRA, has media experience and is at least computer literate.
Guido says that
Miliband should concentrate on sorting out Defra’s serious problems rather than profile raising, partisan propanda blogging.
Rubbish. Ministers can legimately claim political expenses; saying that the taxpayer shouldn’t cover the blog is like saying that political parties should cover the cost of printing speeches made by ministers as ministers. Why does Guido feel the need to emphasise, tabloid-style, his one-line summary of the world? Are his readers at the same level as those of The Sun?
Bloggers4Labour talks about the cost of the Miliblog and the B4L blog here.
xD.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
When you say Ministers can claim political expenses what do you mean? I dont think a DEFRA website can be politically partisan at all!
March 27th, 2007 at 8:08 am
It shouldn’t be partisan, but there’s no reason that a minister shouldn’t defend their actions and - horror! - try to communicate with people at taxpayers’ expense.