dear mn hq why is a government department posting on mn

perhaps they are trying to reach out to people and help them?

PMSL Ministry

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
The Party always apreciates input from the Proles.

If you imagine what you get from the govt is more true than the experiences of people actually living with the results of policies, you've got other problems, Alouisee.

Another complete misinformation story at the weekend about GPs "no longer signing off long term sick". Well that's nice. Only, they haven't done so for years.

So no change needed after all.

So how come they were silent on a thread about benefits the other day when I and other carers were panicking ourselves trying to work out if any carer support remained under new TC / UC rules?

If it's information they can bloody well be generous with it, otherwise it's propaganda.

I quite like it. If the poster is genuinely a government bod then at least we're hearing it from the horses mouth rather than a random collection of experiences.

peachy that's it!

How very disturbing! Not sure I can put into words why I am disturbed....but I am!

And yes what mary says.

if I post anythinga bout my speciality I make sure they know exactly what my quals are, and am happy to say where I am absed, etc if asked.

And I certainly would never set up myself up with a username saying what that was.

I'd rather they were upfront as they have been (if indeed that's who they are) than register with an anonymous name and post as though they are just an ordinary member of the public. That would be creepy

You know I don't have the same problem with the Big Cheese threads

i think for me it just amkes MN feel like a sub division of YOUGOV now. Also there is a crucial if subtle difference between knwoing you are ebing read and having it stamped upon you in great big boots, IYSWIM?

We should all re-name ourselves as Cabinet ministers and post our opinions. Some of us could be Shadow Cabinet ministers and then we could have power struggles on AIBU.

x-post with notcitrus who Really Knows.

Considering the amount of money govt spend on PR, spin and focus groups, etc, I'd think it very likely indeed people get told to come on here and "take the temperature". At the very least.

The big cheeses come on for web chats when they want us to vote for them, so they obviously think MN's worth the candle.

Oh, this is fascinating.

Hope we get some answers. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease. I think notcitrus is right.

As a government worker: we're constantly told to look for new and cheap ways of engaging with the public all the time, to find out what they think of policies and so on. The traditional alternatives are holding meetings and focus groups and running consultations - the former are expensive and often unrepresentative of the wider public, the latter can be expensive, risk not asking the right questions, and again don't always reach a representative section of the public.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Dept for Education has decided to try telling their comms team to go online and join in conversations, especially to do myth-busting. My dept have done similar, usually in mainstream newspapers and specialist magazines, but wouldn't be surprised if the weekly media coverage analysis now includes Mumsnet!

How Mumsnet confirm that DeptforEducation really does represent DfE is another question.

I think that this is incredibly creepy and shows a total lack of self awareness on the part of whatever dreg is doing this. So, business as usual at Conservative HQ then.

The thing is peachy, that regardless of the status of the actual poster, any thread about, say, DLA will be read by many many lurkers who find themselves in a similar situation, and there is real utility in having information on there.

I do understand why you might not fancy it, but them not posting wouldn't stop them reading - it's an entirely separate question.

Is there a problem with them posting on here? Quite apart from the fact that I'm sure they've got more important things to do, this is a public forum and is probably quite widely read in Whitehall. If you don't want people reading certain things about yourself then don't post them on a public forum.

Difference is whois that most random readers son;t have GCHQ to work out who people really are

Which is possibly a little paranoid and not really why I objected but nevertheless

Quite SGM

Probably the first in a week where the LEA questioned DS3's statement funding though.

And reminding people that this is not a private conversation, and that for every one poster there are one thousand lurkers reading over their shoulder, is not a bad thing - stopping them posting wouldn't stop them reading, it would just stop us remembering they're reading.