http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/17/356 Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:46:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/17/356#comment-506 eelpie Thu, 18 Mar 2004 22:21:58 +0000 http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/17/356#comment-506 The oligarchy in the Houses of Parliament was particularly salient in the last few weeks, as the two publicly-subsidised national Opposition parties vied with each other to see how many civil service staff they could fire and how many government operations they could privatise to spend more on security, health and education. Cleary, they knew what was coming in the Budget, which is supposed to be a tightly kept secret, but in this spin-gov, secrecy is negotiable. On the day, Mr Brown outdid the pair of them. Using some very vague arithmetic, he pulled \xA320 billion out of a hat and said he would be spending that much more per year on front-line services. It would involve spending several billion on computers (American) and their (American) consultancies, but at the end of it a whole lot of people could be "wasted", in the ugly corporate terminology. In view of the remarkable concordance of the three parties' views on how to deal with the national budget, it comes as no surprise to learn that Mr Bliar has applied to the Electoral Commission to extend the public subsidy to the governing party as well. That way, all sitting candidates will be subsidised to beat YOU in the next General Election. The oligarchy in the Houses of Parliament was particularly salient in the last few weeks, as the two publicly-subsidised national Opposition parties vied with each other to see how many civil service staff they could fire and how many government operations they could privatise to spend more on security, health and education.
Cleary, they knew what was coming in the Budget, which is supposed to be a tightly kept secret, but in this spin-gov, secrecy is negotiable.
On the day, Mr Brown outdid the pair of them. Using some very vague arithmetic, he pulled \xA320 billion out of a hat and said he would be spending that much more per year on front-line services. It would involve spending several billion on computers (American) and their (American) consultancies, but at the end of it a whole lot of people could be "wasted", in the ugly corporate terminology.
In view of the remarkable concordance of the three parties’ views on how to deal with the national budget, it comes as no surprise to learn that Mr Bliar has applied to the Electoral Commission to extend the public subsidy to the governing party as well. That way, all sitting candidates will be subsidised to beat YOU in the next General Election.

]]> http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/17/356#comment-484 Patrick Haseldine Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:36:11 +0000 http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/17/356#comment-484 I don't think it was a budget for Irishmen - or Scotsmen, Welshmen or Englishmen for that matter - unless they happen to be 70 year-olds and qualify for the one-off hundred quid payment! I don’t think it was a budget for Irishmen - or Scotsmen, Welshmen or Englishmen for that matter - unless they happen to be 70 year-olds and qualify for the one-off hundred quid payment!

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