Government 'In Touch', Says Government Itself

There are few things worse than being considered 'out of touch' - other than rampant infighting and disagreement within your own party, that is.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is all too aware of this. She was hauled in early Sunday morning to appear on Andrew Marr's weekly BBC politics show, in order to explain certain comments made by Health Minister Ivan Lewis. Lewis recently remarked that Labour is 'too often silent on the daily realities facing hard-working families' and they 'simply defend the status quo, even when it is unacceptable.'

Cue Jacqui's televised rebuttal, and a sledgehammer-subtle emphasis on how much she - and the government in general - disagreed with Lewis. The whole scenario must have been rather irksome. Look at the facts: Jacqui found herself frantically engaged in damage control on live TV, knowing full well that the vast majority of the nation was snoozing in and out of consciousness while half-heartedly trying to follow the plotline of T4's Hollyoaks omnibus.

Heartwarming to see, though, that Jacqui and Ivan still agree on one thing: that 'it's fundamentally important that we listen to the British people.' Maybe best to slip that bit of philosophy into the next Whitehall memo, then, eh?

Written by C J Davies on 30 Mar 2008 9:38 PM. Permalink