Minister's blog

Get a load of this. UK Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform, Jim Murphy, has a blog. It's reasonably personal. Here's an example;

Had an early start this morning to get to Manchester for our seminar on faith-based groups and their role in the welfare state. This is something I feel really strongly about. There’s a whole network of people out there with strong links to their communities who could be helping people get the benefits or skills they need to find work. I believe Government can do more to bring them on board and utilise their expertise.

Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t about providing welfare on the cheap or Government handing off stuff it doesn’t want to do to outside organisations. It’s about recognising these groups are often the first port of call for those who often don’t know where to turn. These groups know their community instinctively. And they know what works best for certain people and areas. Why shouldn’t we seek to make the most of this?

In my constituency there’s a strong network of Jewish organisations in the South Side of Glasgow who provide a range of support for people to access skills programmes or help lone parents into work. More importantly, they want to do it. So why not bring them on board and see what more we can do?

Let’s face it, there are a lot of people who for a variety of reasons find the idea of coming to the Government difficult either because of embarrassment or lack of knowledge. That doesn’t mean we should ignore them. If these people are happy to engage their local faith-based group, let’s make the most of it. Do you agree? Let me know what you think…

Very few comments though. (Perhaps most are unpublishable). I've left one at his most recent post just so as he doesn't feel ignored.

Can you imagine a David Benson-Pope blog .....