09 July 2010 | Author: J. Morton Search Copywriter

Facebook users to decide government cuts at Number 10?

Downing Street has just announced a new plan regarding promised cuts in the UK Government's spending strategy: polling Facebook users to solicit their opinions regarding the downsizing of the state.

Facebook has developed a Spending Challenge Channel specifically for the initiative, which functions as an extension of the pre-election Democracy UK pages already in existence. Users of the social networking site will then be able to make suggestions regarding the budget directly to the government ahead of the spending review.

"We are really excited about having Facebook involved in the spending challenge," Prime Minister David Cameron said in a video conference call with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. "There's enormous civic spirit in this country where people want to take control and do things in a different way. We are giving people an opportunity with Facebook and I am sure that they will take it."

Chancellor George Osborne, writing for the Sun and addressing the UK public, said: "You pay the taxes that fund our public services, so you should also have a say on how we improve public services."

The coalition government maintained that the "most serious ideas will be taken forward by officials in the Treasury and other government departments."

Zuckerberg championed the initiative in the conference call: "It's really innovative to open up policy making and engage the public in this way to try and create more social change," he said.

The proposed budget cuts have faced some criticism from union chiefs, and the opposition Labour Party has maintained that the cuts are based on ideology rather than economics.