An unnamed minister denounced Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, head of the No 10 strategic communications unit and a former Guardian journalist, as a "prat" this weekend for his role in establishing the government's e-petition site, which has resulted, among others, in more than a million people signing an online protest against road pricing - to the discomfort of transport minister Douglas Alexander.

Despite the unnamed minister's ire, Tony Blair wrote in yesterday's Observer that he sees the e-petition as an opportunity to engage with those who are against the policy. The petition is the latest flashpoint between the government and an increasingly disgruntled and truculent motorists' lobby. But beyond that issue, the e-petition site has raised questions from various quarters of whether this is a worthwhile means of engaging the public in debate, or simply a window-dressing exercise in meaningless "consultation", or even another sign of New Labour's fixation on focus group-, opinion poll-driven politics ...

So what do you think? Does the e-petition enrich our democratic culture or is it a time-wasting sham of open government?

And as the man behind the scheme, Ben Wegg-Prosser - democratic visionary or plain old "prat"?