Industry | 2010.03.29
Hugh Muir's Diary
It\'s vital that lessons are learned says the Treasury. And one day they will be
• Never underestimate the quiet man, it was said; and after yesterday\'s clever election positioning budget , it might have been said of Alistair Darling. But it\'s not all rosy at No 11, and reason perhaps to worry about developments that seem less than wise. Consider the appointment of city lawyers Linklaters as legal advisers to Infrastructure UK, the body set up to "identify the country\'s long-term infrastructure needs across a 5-50 year horizon, take stock of where current plans are taking us in the long term and analyse where more could be done". Forget if you can that it is Linklaters, the firm forced to deny accusations that it approved controversial deals that shifted billions of dollars of debt off the balance sheet at Lehman Brothers in the years before the bank collapsed. Because it is undoubtedly detailed work and someone has to do it. Ask yourself instead how much it will cost, a question MP Dai Davies put to the Treasury. "No monetary value was assigned to the contract. A schedule of hourly rates was agreed subject to staff seniority," replied the economic secretary, Ian Pearson. So that\'s it. What an earner. They\'ve got the gig, and it costs what it costs.
• There is more on Lobbygate and the ones that got away. And that is as it should be. For we see that among the MPs who were in communication with the fictitious lobbyists of Anderson Perry Associates – aka the Sunday Times and Channel 4\'s Dispatches – was the former Tory leader Michael Howard . Others came close to exposure. Stephen Byers laid down his career so that they might live. Yesterday Kitty Ussher (pictured), former junior treasury minister, assured us that she had no intention of lobbying for cash, and we take that as gospel. But from her emails she did appear to be developing something of a rapport. When shall we meet, the undercover journalist asked her. "Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon on the week beginning 15th March are both fine," replied the MP. "However there may be votes in parliament from 3.30pm on Tuesday and 12.30 on Wednesday. So I could come to your office at, say, 2pm on Tuesday 16th March. Else you would be welcome to come and have a cup of coffee with me in parliament at whatever time is convenient for you." When the meeting was cancelled, Kitty understood, but was optimistic. "No worries," she emailed. "Hope to meet soon."
• And there is much hilarity on the left that the name chosen for the fictitious company was Anderson Perry Associates. This is assumed to have been a sly reference to Perry Anderson , the famed Marxist historian and writer, now an academic in California and once the editor of the New Left Review. Stephen Byers, as we know, famously began his political journey as a mustachioed Marxist. No word from California on what Anderson thinks of it all (we\'ve tried), but a long time collaborator tells us: "I think he will be amused to see New Labour exposed in this way. Skullduggery in a good cause. For my part, I think it\'s riotous."
• A second four-day strike scheduled for Saturday, and it doesn\'t take a genius to discern that the Murdoch empire has no time at all for the striking union Unite, and hails BA boss Willie Walsh as a colossus of industry. But even so, it seemed unnecessary for Sky News to caption yesterday\'s budget coverage against the backdrop of what appeared to be a red, white and blue BA tailfin. Rupert probably wasn\'t watching anyway.
• Finally, with the announcement by Lord Mandelson, the "minister for outer space", of a UK Space Agency to be based in Wiltshire, it was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind, and one giant leap for Swindon. One giant shock for the local bigwigs too. "It\'s not something we\'ve been aware of," moaned Councillor Phil Young, the local cabinet member for regeneration, to the Municipal Journal. "It would have been nice if they\'d have told us." Oh dear. One giant planning application to come.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/25/hugh-muirs-diary-kitty-ussher
