A brief quibble...

There is an unhealthy stink of hypocrisy when Labour MPs act all outraged about the Tories briefing hacks on an announcement before going to Parliament.

Shadow Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw in particular had a face like a supply teacher chiding a six year old in the House when the issue came up just now.

The problem is I had loads of early briefings with Labour ministers and secretaries of state, and no one was ever forcing them to do it.

At no point did they come to the briefing and pronounce that despite having arranged it themselves, it absolutely could not go ahead because of their duty to inform Parliament first.

Press briefings before big announcements were a key part of the Labour way of doing things, now they may well be a key part of the Tory way of doing things.

I can understand if new members on the Labour benches want to change things, but if they’re going to do it credibly they need to have a little honesty as to how the status quo came about.

U-Turn

2008
Health Minister Ben Bradshaw on hospital car parking charges: "We don't think it makes sense to spend money that's currently being spent on patient care - getting people treated faster and better - on subsidising car parks."

2009
Health Secretary Andy Burnham on abolishing hospital car parking charges: "When you come into hospital it affects the patient experience if people can’t come in every day to visit because they can’t afford the charges.

"If you have friends and family around in hospital it helps you recover – this is about making the NHS more patient focussed."

UK Non-Specific Area of Culture

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw got over excited earlier and practically entered a city into a national competition by mistake.

Bradshaw was announcing the ‘cities’ that had put themselves forward as potential candidates to become “UK City of Culture”.

The title will go to the winner of a competition, in which bidding cities must put together a programme of cultural events that will bring about a “step change”, whatever that means.

Anyway, Bradshaw suggested that Derby had put itself forward – but that wasn’t quite what the city council said.

The council has expressed an interest, and assures LD it has a "strong will and desire" to be a part of the competition, but isn't yet sure if it's worth the cost.

Sounds to me like the local authority doesn’t want to pour cash away on the whole thing during the recession.

If you’re beginning to suspect that “UK City of Culture” might be a bit airy, then let me put your mind at rest by bringing to your attention the words of Phil Redmond who is chairing the judging panel.

He said it was all about, “defining how each individual ‘city’ can define culture as a collective endeavour to bring about real step change.”

The word city is in inverted commas because actually you don’t need to be a city to do it – bids are being put in by ‘Urban South Hampshire’ as well as, and this really takes the biscuit, ‘the countryside’.

Yes, all of the countryside in the UK is putting in a joint bid.

It’s actually no wonder if Derby is worried about financing a bid because the winner will receive the grand total of £0 from the Government to support their events.

A not very effective publicity stunt for everyone involved, and hence a bit of a waste of time, says LD.

Any dream will do

Is it me or does our new Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw (left) look a bit like he could be the lead out of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat (right).

It's something to do with the hair - as one lobby colleague commented last night - it's just so thick and glossy.

Health Minister: Unemployment is an advantage

Ben Bradshaw seemed to get a little confused earlier on in Health questions.

He started a speech saying the Government didn't "agree with the Conservatives" that recession was good for people's health - I must've missed that particular Tory proposal.

But he then went on to say: "We know from experience both in this country and abroad, with issues like mental health, more men go to see their GPs if they're unemployed.

"There can be an advantage in that because men are notoriously reluctant to seek health care and health advice."

Probably the thinnest silver lining ever for our two million unemployed.

UPDATE 5.42pm: Eric Pickles just put this out - "This is breathtaking stupidity from Ben Bradshaw and shows just how out of touch Labour are with reality.

"Such insensitive comments sum up this Government’s approach to tackling the recession.

"Ben Bradshaw needs to apologise immediately for his crass remarks."