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Dropping the neutron bomb of excuses

Thursday, March 26, 2009
From Hansard:

"Anne Snelgrove (South Swindon) (Lab): When he expects the consultation on options for access to the island of St. Helena to conclude......As my hon. Friend is aware (Yeah, right. C), Swindon has the largest St. Helena community outside London.

(sundry interventions, equivocations etc)

Mr. Mitchell: Does the Minister not understand that Ministers’ handling of this matter has been shameful, as the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Meg Munn), the respected former Foreign Office Minister, has eloquently explained? The people of St. Helena are British citizens, so do we not have a duty to them to resolve this issue? Is not it time that he and his colleagues got a grip?

Mr. Foster: At a time of global downturn, we are talking about 50 million people around the world being unemployed. An extra 90 million people will earn less than $1.25 a day, and it is expected that an extra 3 million children will die as a result of the global downturn. We have to take all those circumstances into account when making a decision about spending the amount of money that we are talking about on an airport for St. Helena.

So in other words, Foster is using the 'eat up your sprouts - think of the starving children in Africa' rationale for this area of government inaction. I anticipate a lot more of this in the future.

The inaction over St Helena actually has a lot more to do with a certain PM being an obsessive micro manager, as noted previously.

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posted by Croydonian

Douglas Alexander admits he's a glove puppet

Friday, October 10, 2008
From Hansard:

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when a decision will be made on tenders for the construction of an airport on the Island of St. Helena; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Douglas Alexander: I expect a decision to be made shortly.

I raise this because of this, noted in The Guardian, and commented on at the Spectator's Coffee House:

"Earlier this year, the Foreign Office finally asked the Department for International Development to sign off on the airport. The file went up to the secretary of state, Douglas Alexander. But instead of giving the go-ahead himself, Alexander was required to pass the decision up to Downing Street. Brown insisted on reading all the papers in the St Helena file and afterwards asked personally to see all the tender documents, in case they did not give value for money. I am told the papers remain in Downing Street and that no final decision has yet been taken.”


So, 'I expect a decision to be made shortly' rather implies that wee Dougie is not making the decision himself. Was all that expensive education worth it if he is going to be micromanaged? His poor grasp of geography has been noted previously...

The image comes from the rather amusing Sky News Political Top Trumps card collection, as acquired at Conference. Thanks to Shane Greer for supplying them.

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posted by Croydonian