Tag Archives: francis maude

Francis “don’t panic” Maude lands government PR recruitment role

4:23pm Tue May 22nd
4 comments

Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude has landed the role of recruiting PR and advertising consultants for the coalition government – just months after his helpful advice led to a woman suffering 40% burns. 

Addressing a PR conference in London yesterday, Maude announced:

‘Suppliers should know that this Government is on the hunt for the best talent and the most innovative ideas, albeit keenly priced. I challenged my civil servants to come up with innovations that will make it easier for industry to do business with us; now we’ll be looking to industry to come forward with innovative ideas for us.’

Let’s hope he starts listening to some of their advice before he goes on air next time…

Alarm clock Britain: getting up earlier is now called “remoding”

10:58am Wed May 16th
9 comments

In what is a contender for the most cringeworthy video ever produced by Whitehall, the Department for Transport has released a video in which cabinet ministers implore Londoners to get up earlier in the morning and avoid using the tube and buses during the Olympics. This unwelcome advice is euphemistically referred to as “remoding”.

Scrapbook wonders whether transport secretary Justine Greening could sound less convincing:

“I’m remoding at the moment and having a good old walk up to Cabinet. It does me a lot of good.”

Meanwhile, Francis Maude is preserving his hoard of petrol by cycling to work. The clearly out of breath cabinet secretary said:

“Actually it’s great, you feel great afterwards — a bit puffed, but it gets the circulation going!”

With the department’s flagship HS2 project remoded out of the Queen’s Speech, DfT ministers evidently have plenty of free time on their hands.

None of our business? Tories plan assault on FOI requests

9:19am Fri April 6th
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The Conservatives are planning to restrict Freedom of Information requests. Despite an existing framework for charging costlier requests, a report by Newsnight reveals the Conservatives are considering introducing a ”range of tarrifs” for access to documents by journalists, campaigners and members of the public.

After Michael Gove was caught using a secret email account with the pseudonym “Mrs Blurt” to discuss Whitehall business, civil servants have proposed that no personal email accounts should to be used for official matters — unless an official is copied in. Ministers are now looking to respond by charging.

In keeping with David Cameron’s previous claims that “We want to be the most open and transparent government in the world.”, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, whose brief encompasses FOI, gushed about data rights in October 2010:

“Tony Blair bizarrely revealed that his biggest regret in office was introducing the Freedom of Information Act. If I ever sit down to write my own memoirs, freeing up government information will not number amongst my regrets. In fact, I very much hope that it will be one of my very proudest achievements.”

With personal email accounts off limits, perhaps ministers could stockpile correspondence in their garages.

Francis Maude threatened with legal action over late bill payments

12:28pm Wed April 4th
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With the a spoof “Francis Maude advice” Twitter account (@FrancisMaudeAdv) satirising the Cabinet Office minister’s dangerous suggestions on petrol storage, perhaps we can also take some influence from the real Francis Maude: getting the taxpayer to pick up the tab for late payment of bills.

The millionaire minister was threatened with legal action after failing to pay thousands of pounds worth of bills on time at his London home.

Landlords were owed a whopping £2,600 and Maude was threatened with termination notices due to late payments on his bills. The landlords’ letter to Maude warned that the longer he waited, the more he would have to pay:

“We request that you settle the amount outstanding within 14 days of the date of this reminder in order to avoid incurring additional costs or further legal action.”

Documents unearthed by David Hencke show that Maude’s £188 gas bill was also over a month late, and British Gas sent letters asking if Maude was struggling to make ends meet.

The termination notices came after Maude failed to pay a £36 telephone bill and his electricity supplier encouraged him to sign up for Direct Debit to prevent him forgetting to pay.

And the worst part? Maude didn’t have to pay a penny himself — it could all be claimed back on parliamentary expenses.

Woman badly burnt after stockpiling petrol in her house

10:37am Fri March 30th
10 comments

Sky News are currently reporting that a woman has been badly burnt attempting to stockpile petrol. The woman, in York, was apparently transfering fuel between containers in her kitchen. This comes after Francis Maude recommended people stock up on fuel in jerry cans.

Hate to say we told you so.

 

Minister foments run on petrol and suggests dangerous storage method

1:46pm Wed March 28th
4 comments

In what has been correctly described as a transparent attempt to foment oil strike rhetoric, to then blame the resultant panic on Labour donor unions and Ed Miliband, minister Francis Maude told reporters that:

“A bit of extra fuel in a jerry can in the garage is a sensible precaution to take”

Cue people arriving at forecourts with plastic containers:

The storage of fuel in a home is potentially illegal.

Read More: Experts slam maude »

Francis Maude calls cash-for-access scandal “a bit of nonsense”

10:47am Mon March 26th
6 comments

Cabinet minister Francis Maude’s verdict on the cash-for-access scandal on the Today Programme this morning (click orange play button below):

“This is a bit of nonsense.”

Despite previous bluster on transparency, Maude steadfastly refused to reveal who has had intimate dinners at David Cameron’s Downing Street flat – even when they are Conservative Party donors.

Some months before the Cabinet Office stopped publishing ministerial meetings, Maude wrote a Guardian article headlined:

“This will be the most transparent and accountable government in the world.”

With millionaire Maude’s repeated references to “supper” at Number 10, however, at least we’ve learned one thing today:

@ Supper is posher than dinner. Dinner is posher than tea
March 26, 2012 10:24 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite
@martinbright
Martin Bright

Does Francis Maude suppose Cameron’s taxpayer-funded grace and favour apartment is equivalent to a private home?

Civil servants wants to clamp down on embarrassing FOI requests

1:41pm Tue February 14th
4 comments

In a move preparing the ground for an assault on the public’s information rights, a survey conducted by the Ministry of Justice has revealed significant opposition to Freedom of Information legislation from Whitehall civil servants. Apparently Sir Humphrey doesn’t thinks plebians should pay money to access information “like expenses, crime statistics and so on”.

Could transparency be going the same way as much-publicised claims of being the “greenest government ever”? Compare and contrast moves against FOI with this from cabinet office minister Francis Maude, in October 2010:

“Tony Blair bizarrely revealed that his biggest regret in office was introducing the Freedom of Information Act. If I ever sit down to write my own memoirs, freeing up government information will not number amongst my regrets. In fact, I very much hope that it will be one of my very proudest achievements.”

 And again in The Guardian in November 2010:

“The UK government is now the world’s most open administration, but our ambition stretches far further. We are starting to transform the access British people have to the information that matters to them. It may lead to difficult questions – but more importantly it will lead to better decisions and better government.”

If it weren’t for freedom of information, we would still be paying for Douglas Hogg’s moat to be cleaned.

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