Head of UK Government Audit steps down after loads of tasty meals
Sir John Bourn, the guardian of the public purse who ran up bills of £356,000 on travel and £27,000 on meals, is to step down from the post in January, it was announced today.
This just tickles me silly.
Gummint blogging. There’s a topic I’m interested in, though probably best not to go into why (I could tell you, but I’d have to shoot you.) Here in the UK, there is at least one blogging minister. I may not care for his politics, but I do like his style. And there are increasing numbers of local councillor bloggers.
Michael Silence asks what a local government blog should be like and then bemoans the fact that we have such a limited elected representational presence in the blogosphere, despite the fact that Tennessee has such a fine blogging community.
Well, I’m proud to say that one of the blogging elected is Chris Jackson, Lawrence Co Commissioner and stripling lad (a mere 21). Sure, he’s from Loretto, but that’s still close enough to the big Burg that I can claim a sense of local pride.
I would like to say to young Mr Jackson:
I don’t normally blog about work matters, but a recent experience I felt was rather blogworthy.
I sat in on an expert group. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this, Ive served on or convened several steering groups. But usually I know a little something about the topic at hand. Recently though, I was in a group of eminent parenting experts. Academics, leaders in the voluntary sector, think tank gurus, high-up muckety-muck civil servants and me. And we were all gathered round the table to talk about the design of effective parenting interventions.
HA! I don’t know nothin’ about raisin’ no babies.
Fair enough, I was there as a last minute substitute and it was important that someone from my organisation was there to oversee proceedings.
I deal in BS – it’s part of my trade. Plus – I love expounding, so while for the most part I just listened to the “real” parenting experts* – when it came my turn to recommend policy prescriptions for better parenting initiatives I had a few things to say about interventions for oiks (Britspeak for the lower orders):
Are there no workhouses? Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Down the mines and up the chimneys for the ugly kids – cute ones can become child actors or match sellers – that should reduce the level of crime on the streets.
And as for the parents, I blame them. Control those children – it’s not as if you’re doing anything like work. Take a momentary break from daytime tv to get those kids signed up with a work gang master. We’ll all be better off without your urchin roaming the streets unsupervised and playing by the light of a roaring car fire – and you’ll have more money for Silk Cuts and chips.
(Actually, I think I said something about communication styles and community based skills enhancement.)
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*Apparently, the real parenting exerts have moved away from child-centred approaches and self-actualisation (I.e. Let the little tykes run amok) and are now favouring something called Webster Stratton – one of the academics saw my confusion – and said aka Super Nanny. Hey, I love to watch Super Nanny – so let me get behind that public policy.
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The Vol Abroad 