Senior civil servants to get facebook lessons

One of the most worrying things I came across in my investigation into Britain's quango state - Unseen Government - was the noticeable decline in Cabinet Office time given over to monitoring quasi-government. This was surprising, as being the gate keepers of government one might assume this to be one of their primary functions.

But all is now revealed. Rather than waste their time frivolously auditing the actions and costs of taxpayer funded quangos, they were instead preparing guidelines "to encourage civil servants to take the first steps to engage with on-line social networks", such as Facebook and MySpace. Young, 'plugged-in' civil servants - "digital pioneers" as Tom Watson the Cabinet Officer minister described them - will be seconded from their trivial jobs running the country to "enlighten their counterparts in more senior positions" to the joys of photo sharing, instant messaging and virtual 'poking'.

With all the recent failings in government management - HMRC, Rural Payments Agency, etc - one might think that civil servants would be undergoing serious training in data protection and IT. But clearly the Cabinet Office has other priorities.