Thanks to an astonishing laspe in security at the communities department, Chris Addison has obtained a first draft of a mailout from housing minister Caroline Flint, in which her inner thoughts are exposed
A friend of mine works for the government, for his sins (although to be fair, his main sin is working for the government), and came across the first draft of the following mailout in a bin in the communities department: Hi! Caroline Flint here! Well, what a whirlwind half-handful of days it鈥檚 been since I became minister for housing. I鈥檝e certainly been very busy making announcements and decisions. Some people have said to me, 鈥淗ey! Caroline Flint! Don鈥檛 you think it鈥檇 be a good idea to familiarise yourself with the complicated and sensitive brief you鈥檝e been handed so that you don鈥檛 make rash or overly politically motivated decisions whose adverse effects could be felt for decades to come?鈥�
This is a valid point, and that is exactly why I鈥檝e asked my secretary to send me a text every two minutes so that I can have a pretext to run off somewhere urgent if anybody makes it to me.
I鈥檓 a doer, not a thinker. (鈥淒on鈥檛 dream it, be it鈥� 鈥� that鈥檚 my motto. I think it鈥檚 from Socrates, but on the other hand it might be The Rocky Horror Show. I always get those two mixed up. They鈥檙e basically both about men in frocks, aren鈥檛 they?) And I鈥檝e certainly spent most of my time doing and not thinking since Gordon gave me my role. When I鈥檝e not been telling people who live in council houses to get a job in the kind of speech that would make Norman Tebbit turn to his neighbour and whisper 鈥淥oh hey, come on now, that鈥檚 a bit much,鈥� I鈥檝e been getting Middle England het up by making them think that I鈥檓 about to let Consolidated Ro