Labour Blogger Gets Top Civil Service Job

"I will shortly be returning to life as a senior civil servant, and I am looking forward to it. I'm fortunate that the Department for International Development (DFID) is a very successful department, recognised as one of the most effective development organisations in the world But like every part of the public service, we could do better."

So says Labour blogger, Owen Barder, the new Director of Global Development Effectiveness at the DFID, on his blog Owen’s Musings. The Labour toady will spend his first week at work "in Tokyo to discuss how we can work better with the Japanese government to improve international aid, and a meeting in Manila on aid effectiveness".

Nice work if you can get it. And the lad’s on message too. He quotes this from an article in the Guardian by Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC:

‘We live in an increasingly globalised world. Our best response is not to yield to little England, but recognise that the best way of avoiding a rush to the bottom is to fully embrace Europe; and that means accepting the free movement of labour as well as capital and goods.’

Owen agrees: " This is a progressive and economically literate position; and it is a pleasant surprise to hear it put so clearly by a senior union figure."

And it sounds like Owen has been musing on the potential for jumping on New Labour’s IT bandwagon:

"I am sure that you are all avid readers of Public Finance magazine. You’ll be fascinated to hear that this week’s cover feature is my article calling for the establishment of a service-oriented architecture for IT systems across the public sector."

Get your tender in son. It’s the new Klondike. But Labour toady Owen does admit that his new job could pose a problem:

"This is likely to mean that I'll have to change how I blog."

Just change the template Owen. The taxpayers have had nine years of Labour supporting dross like you securing highly paid jobs in Government departments. We’re used to it.