Noticed that the IW Council Web Forum is 'currently unavailable'. I can only suspect that the Communications moderati must be in meltdown trying to stop critical comments. I know of two that mentioned the sacking of our MP which have failed to get through the Grand Censor.
Shame about the Forum. Its normally quite good fun. Hope its back soon.
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I doubt the forum will ever come back Geoff, "Vera" ordered its removal, probably because of the moaning about the Council, and his 4-in-a-row with Private Eye. As the actual "Grand Censor" was his own 120k per year communication consultants from "Waste-minster", who is really to blame for the moaning posts to the forum?
It's a wonder that it kept going as long as it did. Funny, frustrating, spontaneous, irritating, predictable, surprising, genuine, incomprehensible... the Forum was a rare grass-roots institution somehow persisting in a forest of censored and constrained messages. Amazingly, it was a service of national importance - no other local authority that I know of allows such direct and anonymous interaction with the public. Others recognised this too: it contributed towards iwight.com winning a major award.
I mourn its passing - one which has been a long time coming. It is a symptom of a wider ailment. We - and you, Cllr Mr Lumley, in your unique position to do so - must ask ourselves how this increasingly steely grip on public relations is improving the council's service to us. And keep asking.
I see that it has now returned, but with a large proportion of current topics deleted so that some very old posts are now back on the front page.
No doubt any new posts that are in the least contentious will be "moderated" away.
What on earth use is a public form that is so heavily censored?
Please keep up your good work.
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