The transparent obsessions of Mr Maude @ No 10

I do so hate to harp on about the same thing/person/event day after day. Maybe - it's because Boy David, our dear Prime Minister, is away enjoying the charms of Tuscany, whilst planning his next holiday. Maybe - I am jealous because the farthest I go is to Trafalgar Square to watch the crowds by the fountains. Whatever the reason, I turn again to the Paymaster General, one Mr Francis Maude.

He seems to have struck a very vocal streak recently. The subject of his verbose outpourings is the same : the public sector! No surprise there, then!

He has just announced in the Daily Telegraph today:

We are working towards a culture where openness and transparency become core operating principles of our public services

So far - so good!

He went on to comment:

In his second letter on transparency published on 7 July 2011, the Prime Minister announced a series of unprecedented commitments to focus on public service outcomes, through publication of new key data on the National Health Service, schools, criminal courts and transport

Again - so far - so good. Of course public services, like the above, need to be 'transparent', so do the contracts and even the salaries and consultancies.

Then, he went on to say:

Openness is also about enabling choice, letting you, the public, see who the best providers of public services are. ... – our moves will open up a huge marketplace of economic growth in a range of areas.

And this, my friends, is where I begin - and Arturo begins - to become suspicious! As Arturo said to me: "What's with this 'huge marketplace' baloney?"

And I agree, what indeed is this seemingly bland talk of a 'huge marketplace'? They say if you think you're being paranoid, don't worry - there's always someone out there waiting to 'get you'. And, you see, I think that this Weasel Man Maude is one of these Coalition blokes who is 'out to get' - the public sector lot! If I were a nurse, doctor, teacher, social worker ... I would be becoming very paranoid indeed, every time Weasel Man Maude opened his mouth or wrote an article.

Now what I would like is for the Government to be a bit more transparent about itself, its aims, its intentions, its ultimate goals. Tell us what they really intend this 'Big Society' to do. Tell us just how much of the Welfare State they intend to retain.

Arturo and I would like a bit more transparency about the appropriate conversations Boy David, our PR Prime Minister, had with Rebekah and Andy and James. We know they were never 'inappropriate', we've already been told that, in a totally transparent way.

There are many other questions we'd like to ask Mr Maude himself ... too many to list in this blog. We'll send them to him and await the transparent response.

'Bye' from me: