This is a few days old but kudos to Tom Harris for this one. A regular party election broadcast?
Just wait 30 seconds.
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Tag Archives: transition 2010
Quote of the day: Boris' bizarre bazaar
Barely hours after its inception, BoJo was regaling the press with his colourful metaphor for the coalition:
“They’ve created a mongrel breed. It’s a kind of cross between a bulldog and a Chihuahua. And like all mongrel breeds I think it will have a great deal of hybrid vigour and strength.”
And it seems his imagination hasn’t yet tired, likening the new government to “a bazaar” at the Institute of Directors last night:
“I’ll swap you a married couples allowance for Trident; human rights act for an immigration amnesty”
Please, someone put him us out of his misery.
Hat-tip: Jim Pickard
Civil Service memo airbrushes previous government from history
“There has to be someone to carry on government, even if everything else stops”, Sir Humphrey Appleby told Jim Hacker in Yes Minister. It seems latter day Permanent Secretaries have wasted no time during the election and its aftermath in preparing an emollient Whitehall for possible new inhabitants.
An internal government memo sent to civil servants and seen by Scrapbook makes for a most amusing read. Entitled ”Advice on referring to the previous government”, a more appropriate heading might be “Previous government? What previous government?”:
Now that there is a new Government it is very important that in all of our communications we take great care when referring to decisions, actions and policies of the previous Government …
OLD: “Ministers are committed to ensuring that the NHS will continue to treat everyone who needs urgent care”
NEW: “The NHS treats everyone who needs urgent care”
OLD: “We have invested a total of £500,000 in training”
NEW: “A total of £500,000 has been invested in training”
OLD: “We are proud of our record on reducing poverty”
NEW: Delete
OLD: Mental health, one of the Government’s top priorities…
NEW: The important area of mental health…
The funniest of these is surely the reference to policy reduction – DELETE!
Who says Whitehall folk don’t have a sense of humour?
You heard it here first: Philippa "cure the gays" Stroud is new adviser to Iain Duncan Smith
You heard it here first … well, the rumours at least. The Mirror reports the Tories’ failed PPC for Sutton, Cheam and Worcester Park has made her way into Westminster through the back door: as a publicly-funded special adviser to Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith. Stroud’s role heading up IDS’ Centre for Social Justice left her as lead contenter for a political role within DWP despite revelations of her “pray the gay away” homophobic antics.
Former Tory spin doctor Nick Wood founded Media Intelligence Partners, beneficiary - to the tune of more than £20,000 – of Nadine Dorries’ flagrant and quite scandalous abuse of her office expenses. As a side note, Wood is listed as press contact for CfSJ. In any case he never returned Scrapbook‘s call last Thursday.
Now we know why.
Has Caroline Spelman broken the Ministerial Code?
New Secretary of State for Farms ‘n’ Stuff, Caroline Spelman, has become the first member of the new administration to be Guido’d. The Right Honourable Member for Meriden cut her teeth as a food and bio-technology lobbyist and was – until less than twelve months ago – director and shareholder of a company responsible for lobbying the department she now runs.
Scrapbook headed straight for the Ministerial Code of Conduct. Former ministers must seek advice from the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments on any prospective employment undertaken within two years of leaving office. Were there any provisions for roles performed shortly before appointment to a relevant government portfolio?
A five-minute read soon threw up issues. As Guido reports, Spelman’s lobbying was undertaken in partnership with her husband Mark Spelman, to whom her shareholding in their company Spelman Cormack Associates was transferred less than one year ago. Page 13 of the code may prove unlucky for the happy couple:
The new minister’s interests in this area are well known. Did she raise them with DEFRA Permanent Secretary Helen Ghosh?
Or has Spelman broken the Ministerial Code of Conduct in record time?
Sack "homophobic" Theresa May Facebook group clocks up 32,000 supporters
Just want to join the group? You can do so here.
“What do you mean? Of course she’s suitable for the equalities brief – she’s a woman!”
One can only assume the discussion of Theresa May’s appointment as Minister for Women and Equality went something along these lines. Perhaps they should have looked at her voting record? May opposed or was conveniently absent for divisions on the following crucial equalities votes:
- Repealing section 28
- Equalising the age of consent in homosexual relationships to 16
- Gay adoption rights
- Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which would give lesbian couples the ability to receive fertility treatment
- Gender Recognition Act that allows transsexuals to change their legal gender
A Facebook group calling for her resignation has now cracked 32,000 members:
“This is not an anti-Tory campaign. We do not oppose Theresa’s appointment as Home Secretary. We simply do not believe she is appropriate for the position of Equality Minister.”
While its creators have expressly ring-fenced the campaign to the issue of equality, others clearly have different ideas. As many Labour ministers have discovered to their cost, the Home Office is a crowded political graveyard. One prominent Conservative Party activist told Scrapbook this week:
“Home Secretary? There’s a six-month ticking time bomb under Theresa May”.
Hat-tip: Left Foot Forward
A new dawn (or those cabinet posts in full)
The first broken promise has been notched up in this regard.
Bookies balk at five-year government plan
A five-year parliament? The bookies beg to differ! This dropped into Scrapbook‘s inbox from William Hill a few minutes ago:
WITH THE NEW COALITION GOVERNMENT arranging for the next General Election to be held on the first Thursday, 7th, of May, 2015, William Hill are offering odds of 5/1 that it WILL be, and 1/9 that it will not.
“We remain to be conviced that the coalition will hold together for long enough to enable the government to function properly until that date, and think it is more likely that circumstances will conspire to ensure that the next Election takes place on a different, almost certainly earlier date’ said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.
Five years?
Scrapbook gives it 18 months maximum.