Ross Clark in The Times draws our attention to a new pamphlet from Demos about some imagined Pro-Am Revolution. Haven’t you noticed it? No me neither. But apparently all the enthusiasts in the community tidying up their village greens and organising Jam pots for the WI need a New Deal for Communities. Uh, oh. “Government should … invest … community … professional … infrastructure … responsibility … policy intervention … Lead users should play a larger role in foresight exercises to chart the future course of innovation … Pro-Am communities are the new R & D labs of the digital economy”. Recess Monkey calls such buzzword bollocks Bullshit Bingo – management consultant speak applied to political policy making. (New Labour junior ministers drone it out all the time.)

Demos’ wonks conclude with this utter drivel “the new driving force, creating new streams of knowledge, new kinds of organisations, new sources of authority, will be the Pro-Ams.”



What it will really mean is taxpayers funding more Grauniad adverts for Pro-Am Initiative Co-ordinators, Pro-Am Benchmarking Analysts etc. In the real world most people dread the phrase “We’re from the government, we’re here to help”. When will the wonks understand – LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE!

It is not often politics sees harmony, but last night the All Party Parliamentary Choir performed Verdi’s Requiem in Westminster Cathedral.

Guido was of course pleased to see MPs in a Roman Catholic setting (well its a start). Now if I had only…

Apart from, so far it seems, fraudulently getting a spouses’ ticket for someone else’s spouse at the taxpayers expense. Conducting an adulterous relationship with a newlywed behind her husbands back. Getting two senior civil servants to advise Mrs Quinn on how to deal with the expose of his affair in the News of the Screws.

Worst of all, not following the government’s own safe sex guidelines, its not like he can use the old “I can’t put a condom on in the dark” excuse.

My friend Mike Smithson at the ever excellent politicalbetting.com says William Hill are offering odds 7/2 against David Blunkett ceasing to be Home Secretary by new year.

Fast-track indeed. And outside the Home Office rules. Parliamentary standards watchdog Sir Alastair Graham, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (dressed correctly in black-tie) told Paxman last night that the inquiry was a bit “ad hoc”. He did not say its a fix – but the prime minister did.