Manufactured outrage

I always think it's bad when po-facedness wins, even when there are cheap points to be made. I'm equally keen on people not taking all this very seriously.

So, well done Jack Straw for this response to a question about the hours worked by his Special Advisors:

As working for me as a Special Adviser is, I am told, pure pleasure and stress free, my Special Advisers work exceptionally long hours, often at weekends and late into the evening without complaint, and have not therefore felt the need which they otherwise might to complete timesheets to show that I was sweating their labour

I thought it was funny (for it is). And poor form for the right in pretending to care.