Sue Cameron’s FT Notebook is always laced with delicious vignettes. This morning, she reveals that the new cabinet manual has
been withdrawn temporarily because Sir Gus O’Donnell’s Latin grammar is like Pooh’s spelling: it wobbles. What are things coming to when even Sir Humphrey puts the definite article
before a Latin phrase?
Cameron also reviews yesterday’s shin-dig at the Institute for Government. She reports:
It’s well known that Number 10 is reorganising. The days of the soft-touch have gone. After 9 months of being powerless before various Whitehall firestorms, Downing Street has decided to manage government departments. Today’s Times reports (£) that a new team of 9 high-fliers has been appointed to ‘man-mark’ departments; these new muscle men will quell chaos as it erupts.‘Tom Kelly (Tony Blair’s former official spokesman) noted that the coalition was “beginning to learn the hard way that you have to get a grip from the centre”.’
That is all well and good, but, as James has noted,
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