Any one of the 840,000 callers to HMRC who went ignored in January can safely assume that civil servants were busy elsewhere –  at home “taking the cats for a walk” and “gardening“. According to a whistleblower in the department, HMRC’s new-age commitment to “flexible working” has led to paper shufflers concentrating on gaming on their PlayStations rather than deal with the taxpayers who keep them employed. No wonder they kicked up such a fuss when John Glen criticised them for still shirking from home… 

This is apparently an “open secret” within pencil-pushing circles, yet they still claim to be “under-resourced”. Still, they did have enough to find £4.5 million down the back of the sofa for “diversity coordinators”. Good to know the blob’s got their priorities straight…