'Be nice' civil service bloggers warned » Local Government » 24dash.com

Civil servants who write blogs must "be nice" or face being silenced, a Government minister warned today.

Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson also insisted that writing an online diary anonymously was not acceptable.

The intervention followed the demise of an indiscreet and increasingly popular Whitehall blog at the weekend.

"Civil Serf" claimed to be a 33-year-old female middle-ranking official, and mercilessly exposed incompetence and bureaucracy in the Government machine.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was branded "Velcro" - because negative stories stick to him - while Chancellor Alistair Darling and even Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell came under fire.

However, the blog vanished on Sunday after being highlighted in newspapers.

It is believed that Civil Serf had left enough clues in four months of posting to be identified, and now faces being disciplined by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Writing on his own blog today, Mr Watson suggests a draft "code" for Civil Service bloggers, including the instruction: "Be nice."

He specifies that diarists should "write as yourself", "keep secrets" and "think about consequences".

Whitehall bloggers are also under an obligation to "stop it if we say so", according to the minister.

The Cabinet Office confirmed today that it will shortly publish guidelines on civil servants' online activity, which are expected to spell out in what circumstances officials can write blogs or use social networking websites such as Facebook.

It is also likely to include advice on whether they should alter entries for interactive knowledge repository Wikipedia.