At the same time that Defra officials enjoyed a three-day waste disposal junket in Germany, the Government helped fund a trip for local politicians to Budapest to learn about blogging and e-democracy where they stayed in a sumptious 5-star hotel. It was an international event which included the Mayor of Washington as a speaker.
It seems like the DCLG had free tickets to give away and didn’t know what to do with them, they appear to have been allocated in a rather ad hoc and cavalier fashion. On another post Antonia comments:
“I was invited to go on a bursary paid for by DCLG; I will try to give an honest assessment of the conference, but bear in mind that the fluffy pillows on which I slept and the wine I drunk at the evening reception was paid for by the great British taxpayer, helped out by a variety of corporate sponsors, so I may fail in speaking truth to power.”
The great British taxpayer will be greatly reassured to know their hard earned money gives Antonia such luxurious comfort and pleasure. I posted a question on Antonia’s blog, asking why she could’t have attended training sessions on blogging in the UK. Her reply was:
“Ellee – it wasn’t a training event for local councillors, there were about five of us there from the UK who weren’t speakers. My understanding was that we were invited to add to the mix of attendees and to bring the experience of elected members who are involved in e-democracy.”
True, it wasn’t a training event, though Antonia’s highlight of the conference seems to have been a workshop on blogging, and as her site looks really good, I don’t imagine she needs many tips. But did she follow the advice on only blogging about what you want to see published in the Oxford Mail? I hope she will share some of her expertise with my friend Nick Carter, a Conservative councillor in Oxfordshire who was my boss during last year’s election campaign.
Judging from the programme, it seems to have been an excellent event and I would loved to have been invited to “add to the mix of attendees”; I’m quite good at mingling and socialising too. I’m naturally delighted that Antonia had such fun.
I would have found it fascinating to listen to the Mayor of Washington Anthony Williams describe how to connect with hard to reach groups. The Mayor of Hackney Jules Pipe offered tips on connecting mayors and citizens – pretty essential stuff for those entering the London mayoral race. But I think my highlight would have been listening to Najat Rochdi, UNDP rep in the Arab world, speak about e-participation for youth and women in Africa and the Arab Region. Not sure if Antonia was there, she hasn’t mentioned it on her blog.
Where should we draw the line with making costly overseas visits at the expense of the taxpayer? We obviously need to at times, but are the delegates who are invited the right ones who can really make a difference, who can take things forward? Is there a special criteria that is considered before jetting off on these luxurious trips to assess their usefulness and value?
Good luck, btw, to Lichfield District Council which is shortly set to pioneer a national e-democracy project. I’m sure they will be leading on this at future conferences in the UK where more than a hand-picked few will be invited.
Update 9th August: It seems the ES has followed up my story.
Hi Ellee,
Thanks for the links. You raise some interesting points, lots of which I agree with.
It’s not clear to me why I or the other recipents of bursary-funded places were invited, not because they’re not interesting people with lots to contribute, but because it did seem an arbitrary selection. I was invited, but the longer-serving and longer-blogging councillors Bob Piper or Gareth Davies were not, for example.
One of the reasons that I have devoted so much time to talking about the conference on my blog was to share what I learned with others. My place was taxpayer-funded, and so I reckon that I had an obligation to post about what I learned, so that those of us interested in how new media can support increasing democratic engagement increase the knowledge out there – by the way, that includes sharing what I learned with Oxfordshire county councillors of all parties, if they want to know. (I’ve never met your colleague, but then he represents an area a fair distance outside Oxford city on a different authority to me.)
The passage you quote from my blog about the great British taxpayer sounds a bit dubious out of context; I was trying to be honest with the readers of my blog about any conflict of interest I might have in a light-hearted way. Maybe I should have been balder about it and said “I went on a bursary, and will try not to let that colour the reflections I present, but to read what I write in awareness that I accepted that hospitality.” I’ve also, of course, made a full declaration of that hospitality to the appropriate officer at Oxford City Council, and that’s available for public inspection.
Contrary to your expectations by reading the agenda, it wasn’t a uniformly excellent conference. The Mayor of Washington, for example, was not able to attend. Lots of the speakers were the great and the good of the sector, the sort of people who move from one collection-of-initials organisation to another, with no-one ever subjecting them to disinterested scrutiny. As a consequence, there was a parade of boring speakers at many of the plenaries who spoke in platitudes, off the point (many of the speeches are available as audio feeds at http://www.icele.wordpress.com if you’d like to hear for yourself). I enoyed myself immensely and learned a lot, some of which I’ve already passed on to the IT staff at my council. I was hugely glad of the opportunity to attend, but I would hope that the fact that my place was paid for by DCLG, the conference organisers, wouldn’t stop me criticising it where that is warranted. I agree that however nice it is for the attendees, holding conferences in Budapest and Baltimore rather than Birmingham when they are aimed at local government employees from the UK is nonsensical.
I’m interested in your final comment about the new centre of excellence for e-democracy which will be hosted by Lichfield district council; that centre of excellence is, of course, ICELE – one of the organising partners of the Budapest and Baltimore conferences. I’d recommend Public Sector Forums for more discussion on the efficiencies or otherwise of ICELE and the edemocracy conference.
best wishes, Antonia
Antonia, thanks for your response and elaboration, much appreciated.
Hi Ellee
Very interesting blog, and what an extraordinary gig.
I’m presuming some of the tab was picked up by those kindly corporate sponsors, but it was still priced at £800, excluding travel. And we taxpayers payed for how many I wonder?
This whole area of international junketing seems to have accelerated over the last few years. It used to be confined to politicians and senior officials, but as these two cases show, it’s now spread much more widely.
Keep up the probing- I’ve added you to my blogroll.
I am very nervous about overseas jaunts funded by the taxpayer and Antonia’s visit to Budapest is as good example as any. I think most tax-payers take the view that local government should concentrate on trying to do LESS and frankly do it rather BETTER so foreign trips to discuss the net and blogging (rather like local Councillors going on trade visits to China as they did in my local authority of Southampton recently)seem rather excessive. An on-line e-correspondance course and a few hours down the pub with some other bloggers would have been a lot cheaper- and probably as effective…and her Council obviously have a huge in-house IT department which maintain their own web pages who I am sure could have assisted…
Matt.
http://www.MattDeanSoton.blogspot.com
It would be interesting to hear whether there was a political balance of attendees on this junket – I suspect not.
Hi All
I was at that conference too and it was very worthwhile. Could it have been done easier and cheaper? Of course, but it was meant to be “inetrnational” in outlook hence the choice of City and venue. I tackled Dylan on that and he said it was the best place to hold it.
As for that remark Peter, no there wasn’t a balance – far too many LibDems there! There were a handful from each of the three main parties and a couple of non-alligned bloggers.
I don’t know how many delegates were funded by the Govt and the entire cost to the taxpayer. The Labour MP Margaret Moran was included on the list, a couple of Labour and Lib Dems and a Conservative too, Coun Paul Bettison, leader of Bracknell Forest Council and the LGA spokesman on e-governance.
Antony, great to hear you went and found it useful, how did you come to get invited?
Wat, thanks for adding me to your blogroll on your site called Burning Our Money, I shall naturally reciprocate.
punchy article for you Ellee. take no prisoners!
Tom
Thanks Ellee. I got a similar phone call to that of Antonia – new councillor, experienced blogger etc.
Apparently next year the event is being held in the UK, although a second conference was held a few days ago in the USA. All good news but they need to sharpen it up in future.
Glad to see you’re as incorrigible as ever, Ellee. I’ve never heard of the woman whom you referred to, but clearly I ought to get in touch with her.
Your comment about this junket sums it up pretty well – “It seems like the DCLG had free tickets to give away and didn’t know what to do with them”.
Yep, so the DCLG decides to invite a Labour councillor whose party has just lost control of Oxford City Council after years of incompetence. She’s already a blogger, so she doesn’t need convincing about the benefits of e-democracy. But what the hell, it’s only taxpayers’ money so let’s blow it in case she picks up a few tips which might be useful the next time there’s a by-election in the City.
No doubt the Taxpayers’ Alliance (www.taxpayersalliance.com) will be making a note for the next edition of its Bumper Book of Government Waste.
Pip pip
Nick
Nick – I was trying to be polite about you, seeing as how I’ve never met you. Why did I bother? I love the way the county Tories are more concerned about well-off rural dwellers being able to park for free in Oxford city than about the needs of residents who have to put up with your mates’ Jags driving past our schools where one kid in five gets 5 good GCSEs.
TTFN, Antonia
Ellee, are you by any chance jealous that you didn’t get an invite?
LMAO
Evidently with Antony, Antonia and Gavin AYLING, the designated DCLG official simply started at the top of an alphabetical list and worked downwards… 😉
Amy, I’m not jealous, but would loved to have gone, sure. Was it of good value? How much did it cost the taxpayer? Would this money have been better spent on e-democracy events in the UK?
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