We note that County and Borough councillor Raymond Singleton-McGuire has followed our example after a period of extremely patchy communication with his electors.
And as we trawled our way through the few blogs where councillors purportedly extend their communicative reach to the hoi polloi who voted for them, to see what others might be doing, we were disappointed to note that our newest member has erected a hurdle which the general punter has to surmount before being allowed to feast his or her eyes on the words of wisdom contained therein.
Visitors to County Councillor Andrea Jenkyns’s blog could - until recently - read her news and share her thoughts simply by pointing their browser to http://andreajenkyns.blogspot.com/ - but no more.
Now, we are told “This blog is open to invited readers only....”
To access it, a visitor must be a “Blogger” subscriber prepared to enter their e-mail address and “Blogger” password to be granted admission to The Presence.
Let’s not forget that once that password is provided, a visitor’s site is vulnerable to anyone who feels like taking a look - which could well include tinkering with the content.
Over the years, the Tories have been accused of running a club for the benefit for themselves and their members.
We had hoped that Councillor Jenkyns might have proved to be a breath of fresh air in this respect.
But this latest bar on viewing the news and opinions of a so-called public servant who wants to set terms and conditions suggests that this is not the case at all ...
Political blogging in our part of the world is poor enough. One borough councillor was forced to cease commenting because of a campaign of frivolous complaints, whilst others have fallen by the wayside after what might have been a promising start.
Perhaps Boston still isn’t ready for high tech democracy!
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
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