There was a lot of talk when David Muir was appointed from WPP that he would turn the Prime Mentalist into a digital leader superior to WebCameron. Advertising “guru” Muir even wrote a paean to the power of YouTube in his WPP days. The YouTube “Ask the PM” initiative was presumably his idea – dozens of people have asked the PM, with no answers despite them being promised and now well overdue.

Things actually seem to be getting worse on the digital front. If you are unable to get an answer from Downing Street’s YouTube channel emailing the Prime Minister should be easy – that was set up during Blair’s time. Alas, for weeks now Gordon’s public email has been out of order:

This service has been temporarily suspended for maintenance work. Don’t worry, we are still accepting faxes and letters, and you can still let us know your opinions via an epetition or on our new Twitter service.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We hope to be back up and running in a few days.

23 June 2008

Maintenence work for email? Eh? Basically Downing Street, digitally speaking, is in broadcast-only mode. They can send you messages, but you can’t tell them anything. A metaphor for the bigger picture…