Take Out the Trash Day – the perfect opportunity to bury bad news
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Version 0 of 1. Name: Take Out the Trash Day Age: As a phrase, 15 years old (it was brought to prominence by an episode of The West Wing in 2000). As a practice – immemorial. Appearance: Annual. Round here we do the bins on a Thursday. Every Thursday. You people must live like animals. No, I’m talking about the last day of the parliamentary year. Oh, so when all the politicians leave the building – that’s like taking out the trash, except it walks out by itself? I get it. It doesn’t really work, but I get it. No, again – it’s the day when they release lots of bad news in the hope that, in the Christmas rush, there will be fewer MPs and journalists around to scrutinise it and fewer media outlets willing to kill the festive buzz by publishing it. Ah, I see. An ultra-good day to bury ultra-bad news, you mean? Exactly. How much bad news has the government got left? We’ve had the bedroom tax, food banks, “fit for work” people dying, people with their benefits sanctioned, social services cut to the bone, climate deals sabotaged, demonisation of the poor, the endless aggravation of refugees’ misery … I could go on. Well, it turns out that among the 424 documents – including 36 ministerial statements on matters of national importance – were still more malevolent nuggets. Do tell. The bill for special advisers rose from £8.4m to £9.2m this year, including a 42% pay rise for George Osborne’s chief of staff, Thea Rogers. While he was freezing the pay of public-sector workers? Yuss. Go on. £16bn lost to tax fraud. Nearly £2m spent on ministerial cars. Plans to strip the Lords of veto powers. Court fees hiked, police funding cut. Some 44% of families affected by the bedroom tax experiencing hardship, while the policy fails to free up accommodation as intended. The rejection of 30 key proposals to cut prison-mortality rates. And now stop. OK. I’m going to have a bit of a cry and then a mince pie, if that’s all right with you. I would say that was fine. Merryish Christmas to you. Do say: “On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: no more Conservative rule.” Don’t say: “You’ll be lucky. The Lords reform is just one of a dozen little power grabs they have performed to make themselves invincible.” |