Blogging in Budapest (From Oxford Mail)

Blogging in Budapest

9:40am Saturday 12th August 2006 in

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A city councillor sent on a taxpayer-funded trip to Hungary to study blogging has admitted it could have been held in...Birmingham.

Antonia Bance, the Labour councillor for Rose Hill & Iffley, was invited by the Department for Communities and Local Government on a three-day, all expenses-paid conference in Budapest on the finer points of blogging - the keeping of Internet diaries. She received a £500 bursary to go on the trip, which was attended by "several hundred" other bloggers and representatives from central and local government.

The total cost of the jaunt, which was held at the luxurious five-star Hotel Intercontinental on the banks of the River Danube, was £300,000.

Although Ms Bance has come in for criticism for going on the junket, she conceded the trip should have been held closer to home.

'Blogger Bance certainly knows how to have her cake and eat it'

Council leader John Goddard

Ms Bance, who according to The Guardian newspaper is among the top female political bloggers in the country, said on her website: "Strange phonecall a few weeks ago: 'Hi Antonia, it's Dylan Jefferies at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

'We like your blog, and you're a newly elected councillor, would you like to come to a three-day conference on the Internet and democracy in Budapest? We'll pay your airfare and hotel.' (Well, what would you have said?)"

"I was invited to go on a bursary paid for by DCLG. I will try to give an honest assessment of the conference, but bear in mind that the fluffy pillows on which I slept and the wine I drank at the evening reception was paid for by the great British taxpayer, helped out by a variety of corporate sponsors, so I may fail in speaking truth to power."

The Oxford Mail was told by a DCLG spokesman that the trip was laid on to enhance local e-democracy with "key players".

Ms Bance added: "I think it was the wrong decision to have held it in Budapest. Why wasn't it held in Birmingham? I was invited because I am interested in the subject and run a successful website. I was grateful for the opportunity and learned a lot."

Other city council bloggers include Liberal Democrat Stephen Tall and Green Matt Sellwood. Council leader John Goddard said: "Blogger Bance certainly knows how to have her cake and eat it.

"She jollies off to Budapest at the taxpayer's expense, enjoys her freebies then after the event comes home and says: 'What a waste of public money, it should have been held in Birmingham.' "Ah well, such a chance only comes to those favoured by the New Labour spinners of DCLG. I'm quite sure local e-democracy will be all the better for this splurge of £300,000.

"Maybe the voters of Oxford City will feel more inclined to pay their income tax knowing it has been blown on such a good cause."