Joined up government? I don't think so!

Unfortunately, my ‘excitement’ didn’t last long. Expecting the event to be tomorrow, I was instantly disappointed. It actually took place this afternoon at 3pm in central London. I received the invite at 12.15pm and I’m based in Bristol!

 

I got on the phone to the Department for Business’ press office and was told the event was originally due to take place in Southampton but because of the snowy weather it had been rescheduled. When I questioned the short notice, the press officer told me the Going for Growth strategy launch had been “well-publicised” and she was happy to send me the relevant press releases. I already had the press releases. It was the event I wanted to go to as opportunities to interview Lord Mandelson don’t come along very often. If I was cynical, I would say the Department preferred to have as few members of the media there as possible given the “attempted coup” earlier this week. But I’m not cynical so I won’t say that.

 

In a move of desperation, I asked whether the press conference would be streamed live online. “Downing Street might be streaming it but you’d have to ask them” was the reply. “Can I have a number for the relevant person”, I asked. I was given the switchboard number. When I eventually got past the receptionist (who initially informed me I’d have “to write in” if I wanted to contact the digital team), a press officer told me “we have a camera and might be streaming it but there are technical problems”.

 

Then a tweet arrived:

 

 

To cut a long story short, after a couple more calls to Downing Street and a few tweets to a Department for Business civil servant, I eventually discovered the live stream would appear on the Downing Street website at 3pm. It did; at 3.20pm.

 

We hear a lot about joined-up government but that clearly wasn’t in place today. Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of Twitter and have praised the government for using it but in situations like this, good old fashioned offline conversation is what counts.

 

If the government wants us journalists to cover the positives coming out of Whitehall rather than concentrating on the negatives, they need to make it easy. So yes, a few tweets might bring ministers praise from us social media fans but as well as that, talk to each other!