Bill Thompson vents his frustrations on the Beeb’s website. I’m not entirely sure how he went from “e-government isn’t working” to “we can solve it ourselves by using mysociety”, but he’s been right before so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Bill mentions the Inland Revenue’s recent letter to many taxpayers inviting them to send their return in over the Internet – although he’d sent it in a couple of months before. I’ve seen the note that went out – it’s a simple, play by play set of instructions about how to do it – and I guess Bill realises that constructing such a mailing is a time consuming business and that, just like magazine publishing in the dead tree world, things start a long time before publication date – and that means that some people get things that they shouldn’t get. It’s the same reason why BT say “if you’ve paid your bill in the last x days, please ignore this letter”. So, cheap shot Bill. Better to focus on the main thrust of your piece.
