If you’re a blogger and you venture into government whether in the bureaucracy proper or as a ‘staffer’ you’ve got a problem. You can’t keep expressing yourself as candidly as you might wish for fear of breaching the relevant public service code of conduct, of having some perfectly sensible observation you make beaten up by the media or just getting others’ noses out of joint. So often people down tools. As Tim Watts did when he ceased writing his excellent blog Tree of Knowledge upon becoming a staffer first for Stephen Conroy and then for Sir John Brumby. (OK John Brumby doesn’t have a knighthood, it just sounded good and I wanted to make sure you were paying attention).
Tim, being a man of substance and an irrepressible one to boot has resurfaced in a manner that finesses all these dilemmas while keeping his blogging instinct finely honed. He’s heading through his entire bookshelf, and reviewing all the books in it. Go and blog Tim’s bookshelf with him.