Many a True Word ...

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws said: "When I arrived at my desk on the very first day as Chief Secretary, I found a letter from the previous chief secretary to give me some advice, I assumed, on how I conduct myself over the months ahead.

"Unfortunately, when I opened it, it was a one-sentence letter which simply said ’Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left.’"

Outgoing Labour minster Liam Byrne, who left the note, insisted it was meant as a joke. I'm sure it was. But many a true word is spoken in jest.

Comments

Jane said…
It appears this is a true word spoken in jest. Not very funny! How unprofessional. An outgoing minister with any respect for his position would normally point the incoming minister in the right direction with constructive advice. Liam Byrne should be thoroughly ashamed of himself leaving his successor to inherit such a mess. If he had any remnants of conscience left he would not joke about it. He would have written an apology.

It was blatantly obvious, that in the last six months to a year of the Labour Government, there was a spending spree ordered to look impressive. Most projects were in the pipeline i.e. no obligation to come up with the ready cash to pay for it all. Projects were kept on hold, just ticking over. Building Schools for the Future in Cumbria was a classic example. First the 80 million promised to three comprehensive schools was held back on a technicality, then a new obstacle was put on the track. The carrot to getting the money, a free school meals pilot to be adopted, funded by County. Jamie Reed blamed County for not meeting the criteria, though the goal posts were shifted out of the blue. A cynical manoeuvre. It remains to be seen whether this money really exists now that County has adopted the unrelated pilot.

Now there are whispers amplifying into noise from the corridors of Whitehall that civil servants warned Government ministers that the cupboard was bare. Government ministers were living in a parallel universe constructed by spin. Believing their own propaganda did not make for reality in our world.

Good luck Chief Secretary, David Laws.
10:42 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more