New Environmental policy? All you need are Owl Magnets!

New Labour has tried to trial a wiki style policy document. DEFRA (Dept for Elimination of Rural Affairs) is the department that has be chosen to trial this and not surprisingly the Great British Public has taken this idea to its heart and thoroughly trashed the document. Its worth reading as some of the additions are hilarious. For example

What tools can be used to deliver the environmental contract? Spade, Organic Yoghurt Stirrer, Old washing up liquid bottle, Sticky Back Plastic.

and of course Owl Magnets

It has been so thoroughly messed around with that it's now useless for anything other than having a good laugh at, and the Administrators have gone back to 'official' version. This is still a good laugh for example from the water saving section.

What would an environmental contract for water look like?

Citizens will:

• think about water usage in their homes
• turn off taps when not using them
• have fewer baths
• use rainwater for watering garden etc
• obey restrictions on water usage in times of water stress.

that'll certainly allow ministers to talk about 'The Great Unwashed'.

I assume the idea is so the bureaucrats can enlist the public to help write policy documents and get "buy-in". But if the Dear Leader fails to listen to 2 Million people marching against the war in Iraq then Civil Servants and Politicians can hardly expect this exercise to be taken seriously.

As for the choosing DEFRA to trial this seems very odd especially as their staff don't have to time to pay farmers because they are too busy leaping naked off filing cabinates.

This just seems like another New Labour fad that Allows the government to...

• look cool by keeping up with new technologies even if they are not fit for purpose.
• claim it is listening to the people when it publishes what ever intended to in the first place.
• blame the public when the policy fails.

But expecting this to work just shows how out of touch it is with the public and technology. If it actually wanted people's input it should have instigated some kind of discussion forum. Then after extracing the sensible replies, produce a document from to be commented on, update again and so on. Basically as one would for any business document that require input from many sources.

I mean who thought this up, one document with a thousand authors?? Have they seen wikipedia? That's full of errors and omissions and the people who update that are generally support the principle of wikis!