The leader of Hounslow Council has had his knuckles rapped for linking his council blog to a political site.

Councillor Peter Thompson has been officially reprimanded by the national Standards’ Committee for the content of his blog on May 19, which it considered a breach of the members’ code of conduct as the website was used in a way that could be interpreted as political.

yourlocalGuardian

Apart from this looking like a political spat the story highlights the benefits of councillors setting up their own blogs and not relying on council provided sites for communicating with their constituents.  It can’t be easy to be a local politician without be political.  As Cllr Mary Reid says in the CivicSurf video (at 0:19 secs):

“I want a space where I can be what I am, a politician…”