Dispatches shows it really is quite impossible to exaggerate the venality of our political class.
At least we now know the daily basic rate for a politician is £3,000…
UPDATE : Not the first time Byers talking sleaze has got him into trouble. (Via Public Interest.)
UPDATE : Some 2,300 people have signed a petition to the Queen in a matter of hours – a rate of 6 a minute.
That is even faster than the meter of his cab…
Though Guido doesn’t normally give the Treasury spinners much credit they do have some pretty stunning put-downs from time to time. Vince spent the weekend briefing those few hacks who haven’t yet seen through his act that, in an unprecedented step, the Treasury had opened talks between Vince and Nicholas MacPherson, the Permanent Secretary. In a “go-back-to-your-constituency” moment Vince even said he was “ready to serve“. It was a tad embarrassing then when Whitehall made it clear what was going on. They said they were amazed what old Vince got out of a twenty-minute meeting – which he requested – and they hosted “out of politeness“.
The senior moment unravelled very quickly and far from being unprecedented these meetings were sanctioned by the Cabinet Office as a courtesy to the opposition and took place before the 2005 election as well. It’s a shame the old soothsayer didn’t “foresee” this bit of spin unravelling…
If you had subscribed to the Guidogram you would have seen this on Friday…
