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They were sure about the stats. But they were wrong. The humbling of reckless Eric
• It's hard work in government. Of that there is no doubt. But there are compensations and, the Pickles, secretary of state for local government is having a high old time rubbishing local councils. We're skint and it's your fault, say the local authorities. Stop moaning, says Eric, aided by his friends on the Mail and in the Telegraph. You're loaded. You just won't admit it. And this is to be expected because all's fair in love and war. But it would be nice if Eric and his crew could at least curb the tendency to play fast and loose with the figures. No local authority "faces a reduction in its expenditure of more than 7.7%", Eric's man Andrew Stunnell told the Commons. Not true. And quietly, but not quietly enough to escape the attentions of Labour's Caroline Flint, he's had to correct it. "No local authority faces a reduction in its spending power of more than 8.8%," says the humbling correction. By our calculations, there could be more than £150m difference between the government's reckless, inaccurate assertion to parliament and the reality confronting cash-strapped local councils, who spend about £60bn. Not lies, you understand, for these are honourable men. But damn those statistics.
• Yes damn those dodgy statistics. "What about Labour-run Islington, which is slashing frontline jobs and children's services, but hasn't put a finger on the chief executive's salary of £220,000," railed Big Dave, joining the Pickles on the warpath and jollying up his Tory advisers. That will be Islington in north London, one assumes: where the chief executive's salary was in fact slashed by £50,000.
• And damn those super-injunctions. But then, our traditional adherence to secrecy is not much better? It has been 64 years, but only now – with another royal wedding on the horizon – do we learn the closely guarded secrets from the day the Queen jumped the stick with Philip. Visitors to the National Archives can read for the first time of the decision not to extend the opening hours of public conveniences, the polite refusal of an offer by a Nottingham firm of some nylon underwear, and the rejection of Welsh gold for the wedding ring. Officials suspected an advertising stunt! And fast forward, if you will, to 2028 when details of Sittingbourne and Milton urban district council's proposed wedding gift will be released; to do so any sooner would, apparently, breach the Data Protection Act and the confidentiality clauses of the Freedom of Information Act, both of which were passed more than 50 years after the event. That must have been a helluva gift.
• We alluded to this two weeks ago but it bears saying again. There clearly is something eating away at that very angry man of the Mail on Sunday, Peter Hitchens. At a recent event about drug laws, organised by the University of Bedfordshire, Hitchens threatened to walk off the platform when an audience member pointed out that his brother had been for many years an ardent campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis. He was so outraged to be associated with his brother that he stood up preparing to stomp off, and only the calming tones of the chair, former BBC correspondent Jon Silverman, professor of media and criminal justice there at Beds, persuaded a very bad-tempered Hitchens to stay for the duration. He's popular on the speaking circuit but organisers should know that they take a risk. They might be advised to put a little something in his tea.
• Finally, a setback in West Yorkshire, where attempts to settle the feud between Tony Blair's father-in-law Tony Booth – past star of the movie classic Confessions of a Window Cleaner – and his real-life window cleaner, have reached an impasse. Booth's indomitable wife, Steph, tried to intervene. Nothing doing. "I approached the window cleaner in a spirit of reconciliation," says Steph. "And after a verbal battering – on the sins of my husband – he told me Tony would have to apologise before he would even look at my windows. Needless to say hell would freeze over before that happened. Meanwhile my windows still need cleaning – the sunshine highlights all their glorious deficiency." We feel moved to mediate but it won't be easy. These enmities run deep.
