Other civil servant bloggers round on the Serf

There are, it seems, plenty of civil servant bloggers already in the 'sphere and they aren't too impressed with Civil Serf. But their very existence shows that it can be done if you work in Whitehall. Are the proposed Watson rules the right ones?

Whitehall Webby: The facts are simple, Civil Serf crossed the line. The Civil Service Code is clear about integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality being critical to acting as a civil servant. Even if all she’s guilty of is being indiscreet, then she’s certainly not acted in the spirit of the code.

Davepress: Public servants blogging is A Good Thing and we need more of it. This is to open up the workings of government, at whatever level, so that the citizens can become engaged with the work undertaken on their behalf by public servants. Anonymity is A Bad Thing, and only trouble can result from it. Don’t think you are being clever: you will be found out

Paul Canning: What Civil Serf fitted into was the category of work moan blogs of which they are a number of examples proliferating all over social media. Yes, it provided right-wingers with thrills and those of us in eGov with recognition but what did she achieve? What was she trying to achieve?

A different view is put by Puffbox (not public sector but a UK website consultancy with a particular fondness for news and government work): Steadily though, the Legend Of Civil Serf is building, in the secondary analysis and the ill-informed blog comments that build on it. That the blog was revealing state secrets, including the contents of Alistair Darling's forthcoming Budget. That it named individual ministers and told endless tales of their incompetence. That she was wasting time blogging, when she should have been working. That it was a big deal. In truth, it was none of these. It was a modest affair, a handful of posts written over a three-month period by an intelligent young woman, describing what she saw in her workplace.

Comments

[Sanny]

It seems the Civil Serf is the only one who knows who she worked for. She was/is a Public Servant; that is she served the public and the public is you and me not the faceless bunch at Westminster. If only our MP's and the First Division could be as open and honest.