OLIVER PICKED THE RIGHT DAY TO GET CAUGHT

Oliver Letwin is a lucky man. 


A government minister caught, not just once, but on 5 occasions (ie habitually), dropping important papers into bins in St James's Park, could reasonably expect to make the headlines on every  news bulletin and in most newspapers.


But by the most amazing stroke of good fortune (at least for our Olly), the only legal fox hunt in England came to an end today with the result that pictures of the bloodied animal and stories of his inevitable fate have taken precedence in all media, even the 'Daily Mirror', which was responsible for breaking the Letwin scandal.


Mirror photographers caught the hapless Cabinet Office Minister of State glancing at papers and dropping them into public waste bins. According to a Cabinet Office spokesman, the papers contained no classified or secret information. According to the journalists who found them on the other hand, they included, amongst other things, briefings and correspondence on terrorism and national security and government planning.

The newspaper backs this up with details of some of the correspondence, which includes letters between members of a committee that scrutinises the work of MI5 and MI6. That's pretty classified, you would think. Another piece of paper details links between Al-Qaeda and Pakistan; so, not just a note about getting more milk from the office tea fund!


Additionally of course, he is a constituency MP and constituents' letters, with addresses, telephone numbers, and, of course, details of their problem(s) were among the papers left for all to see.


I thought that constituents' letters were supposed to be retained for follow ups, and I know that I would be unhappy to put it mildly, if any of my letters to an MP were left in a park for anyone to read.


I know Cameron has his hands full with Fox, and he may have them even more full if the Cabinet Secretary's inquiry, (or the press) comes up with more information  proving criminality rather than stupidity and lack of judgement on the part of the ex-Defence Secretary. It has even been suggested that Fox may be guilty of Treason.


However, surely Cameron can't simply accept an apology from Letwin and let that be the end of the matter? 


Hard though it may be for David to lose 2 ministers in one week, Letwin should also stand down. Further, in view of the disrespect he has shown to his constituents, I'd suggest the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead and a return to the academic life to which he is much better suited.


At the same time Letwin is far too clever and far too stupid to be in government.

Picture thanks to Cynical Highlander

HOW MANY KINDS OF GAFFES CAN YOU HAVE IN AN ENGLISH TORY CABINET?

The afternoon I was involved in a discussion on the current state of the UK government. This came about because of two major fluffies in one day.

Firstly the prime minister, forced to go to Pakistan after causing a diplomatic incident with his rather unfortunate “looking two ways” comment when he was in India, took with him aid worth £650 million and a promise of security information regarding roadside bombs, which in the wrong hands could prove disastrous to UK troops... and then he told the Pakistani ministers that they must not avoid paying their taxes, otherwise this aid would not sit well with the British people. (Yes he did, he really did!) Ewwwwwwww!

Then of course Boris decided to let it out that he was disgusted that a minister had told him that he didn’t want 'people from Sheffield flying away on foreign cheap foreign holidays’! It seems that the miscreant was none other than millionaire Old Etonian, Oliver Letwin, who clearly has very little time for people who take cheap holidays... (and well, that’s most of us Olly!)

I remarked that this was a bumper day with two gaffes, little knowing that our Nick had ventured forth with a third (if you follow me). Yes, it seems that the DPM wants to stop people with sharp elbows getting their kids into an internship, like...., well, like Nick Clegg’s dad did. And unpaid internships were also now to be banned in the Liberal Party, as it’s only the very privileged that can afford to take jobs that pay nothing... like the people who worked for Nick Clegg in opposition, and didn’t even get expenses!

So much for the launch of an Equalities programme! Opportunities for all (ish)

So anyway, it got us thinking about all the unfortunate pickles (no, not that one) that this amateur UK government has overseen.

Off the top of our collective head (and now my memory):

Planes that broke down before they took off on a rescue mission;

Planes that went to rescue people from Yemen, but were charging twice the price of local air operators and flew home empty; Gaddafi in Venezuela (so says Twitter);

SAS in Libya (oooops);

The complete changes in detention orders that were the same with different names;

English forests debacle (still unclear of what’s happening);

English NHS’s break in legislation for consultation..eh, or something;

English school rebuilding mess: the House Elf couldn't wait to show off how clever he was (n't);

Selling off of English school playing fields, just before the Olympics a condition of which was to encourage sport and the subsequent sudden change of heart when reminded of contract;

Cabinet Office minister i/c Big Society who,in a Sarah Palin moment, couldn’t name one thing he did for free, “Golly Gosh Francis”;

English student fees u-turns from the Libs...and now they don’t have the funds to pay for the loans up front, so fewer students will go to university and the universities will still be starved of cash, bravo lads, smart move;

Chancellor who didn’t know how much he took from a £1.30 litre of petrol (that was last week and ancient history; it’s £1.33 already);

Reduction in pensioners’ winter payments (which they will have to reverse soon, otherwise every single one who dies next winter will be headlines in the Daily Mail);

Sudden finding of funds to pay housing benefits at full rates after 1 year (on the basis that Boris pointed out that 2 million homeless in the English capital while the Olympics were on would be bad publicity);

Cameron’s insistence against advice, on employing Andy Coulson, who then had to resign;

Cameron employing personal photographers and imagine consultant at the taxpayers’ expense;

Jobcentres being set targets to trick people off JSA now that there are no jobs;

IDS saying that we all WANTED to work past retirement age, when we don’t;

Threats of Cabinet resignations over high speed railway in England, going through rich people’s back gardens (their constituencies);

Oil company tax hitting 40,000 jobs in Scotland.... Is that enough?

Well, I’m sure there are more. Let me know what I’ve missed.