The UK Government has come under fire for using a weblog to promote its proposed state pension reforms.
Debating the reform bill in the House of Commons yesterday, Conservative MP Philip Hammond said:
"The issue cannot be fudged or avoided. It must be confronted head-on. The Government must stop making statements like the one that the Secretary of State made earlier or the one on the Minister of State's blog that 'even a part-time worker earning £6,000 could receive almost £2 in retirement—getting out double what they put in'.
"If any pension provider made such a statement, he could expect the regulator's knock on the door about five minutes later. If we are to have an open and transparent debate about the value of personal accounts and if we are to convince people of their credibility as a long-term savings vehicle, the Government must be disciplined in the way they present the possible returns."
The offending post was
written by the Labour minister responsible for pensions reform, James Purnell, on the Department for Work and Pensions' blog back in November, attracing three comments, some of which interrogated the proposals.
Up to now, we've only encouragement from bloggers advocating politicians get into the blogosphere to connect with electors on something like a more grassroots level.
But the opposition Conservatives are clearly nervous that, in doing so, the sitting government might be able to use its state blogs to tip the balance of public opinion in favour of its policies.
There's a parallel in this example with the question of whether finance-related blogs should be controlled by industry regulators in the same way that US companies are forbidden, for example, to issue particular kinds of messages in public whilst in the process of floating on the stock market.
The blogger in question, minister Purnell,
told Hammond in the Commons:
"Of course, there is a difference between an informal discussion in a blog and the professional advice that one provides as part of a regulated service."Should political blogging be done on an individual, ministerial or departmental level?