For Straw read Hacker

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:41:14 +0000

Listening to the Today programme coverage of the latest bugging scandal my thoughts were, more or less:

Read "Hacker" for "Straw" and you've got yourself an episode of Yes, Minister.

In particular this part of the story:

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said it showed that Justice Secretary Jack Straw was out of control of his department.

He said it was "beyond belief that the department would not flag up to a minister" that long-standing guidelines had been broken within the department.

"It now appears that Mr. Straw is in as little control of his department as the home secretary is of hers," he said.

It tickles me when one politician accuses another of "losing control of their department" when they know that they all have, at best, tenuous control over the bureaucracy they teeter atop.

I was encouraged by the line the BBC took, that perhaps we and our politicians should be more disgusted with the state of the intelligence gathering in this country.

Have the frogs noticed the gas being turned up at last?

Curiouser and Curiouser! on bugging

For Straw read Hacker