Crowdsourcing the deficit

Written By: - Date published: 2:43 pm, July 13th, 2010 - 11 comments
Categories: democratic participation, International, Politics, uk politics - Tags: , ,

Why let politicians have all the fun? Now the British public can get in on the service slashing action too – via Facebook.

The government there has launched a Facebook group to support the Treasury’s “Spending Challenge” – where the public is invited to share their ideas for cutting spending.

With the possible exception of the idea to “Force cats to spend one hour a day on electrical treadmills” the Treasury site doesn’t yet display a particularly high degree of imagination with suggestions like “Cut benefits to immigrants”, “Abolish multilingual forms” and “Do not provide housing for teenage mothers” featuring prominently.

The Facebook component is launched in the video below by a fawning David Cameron (“Look me up next time you’re in town”) and his new BFF, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerman.

11 comments on “Crowdsourcing the deficit ”

  1. ianmac 1

    ‘Spose the masses will have the illusion that they are participating. A bit like taking the aggression out on a punch-bag. Ah. Now I feel better.
    Still, about as effective as participating in Consultation only to have them do what they were going to do anyway. Bit like dealing with my wife.

  2. Julie 2

    Given Key’s interest in emulating Cameron, I fear he will pick up this idea and get Kiwiblog to host it 🙁

    • ianmac 2.1

      Kiwiblog might fall over given that they are already flat out speaking on Key’s be-half – or more.

    • DS 2.2

      Speaking of the similarities between the two, has anyone ever seen John Key, David Cameron, and Canada’s Stephen Harper in the same room at the same time? 😉

  3. Richard 3

    At least we can see that Cameron has a much larger bedroom than Zuckerberg.

    Although Cameron does seem to have an appalling carpet, and (judging by the shadows on his bookcase) seems to need a couple of hand-holders to help him run his webcam.

  4. Jim Nald 4

    Geesoos. Is this like a new public policy contraceptive move?

    captcha: firm (huh?!)

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