"Of course! I heard him rehearsing his speech. He said something I couldn't understand - then he giggled!"
"Ah! That was him practising his Russian phrase! His aides thought it would go down well! Did you hear his story?"
"You mean about the KGB trying to recruit him when he was on a 1985 gap year visit to the Black Sea?"
Arturo looked disappointed that I knew - He loves telling me news!
"He and they had a lucky escape then!" He joked. "His PR skills would have left them stunned and reeling!"
Arturo padded off back to Number 11 where they have troubles of their own!
There are so many troubles looming over 'Boy David' at the moment that I expect he wished he'd accepted the putative invitation - so many years ago!
What troubles are these, do you ask? Well - let me list just a few:
** The new Universal Credit the love child of the 'Silent Man' Iain Duncan Smith . Our IDS jumped onto the 'reform' bandwagan with alacrity! Others would say with foolhardy eagerness. He thought that - with just a click of his fingers - he could break down the complex benefit system and produce this so-called 'universal' credit! He obviously had not heard the saying 'There's many a slip twixt cup and lip'! Or, of course, he may have decided to ignore it.
Whatever the reason - there's trouble brewing, according to several MPs. It seems that MPs on the Public Accounts Committee have warned that
The successful transition to Universal Credit will depend heavily on the development of a new IT system with HM Revenue and Customs to a very tight timetable. We have often seen problems with delivering new IT to time, budget and specification.
The Government wanted to commence testing the new Universal Credit IT system by April 2013. It would then come into play in September 2013.
Members of the Public Accounts Committee commented:
Failure to meet this timetable could increase costs and have a knock-on effect on other budgets and cost reduction plans.
Of course, IDS, being a prudent man, was hoping that his new credit system would bring in massive savings for the government. Savings being the key word of the day! Never mind the service - get the savings! Perhaps this should be the new motto for our 'Silent Man' Iain Duncan Smith.
It seems the Department for Work and Pensions had high hopes that savings would be made by encouraging people to use the internet for obtaining their claims! The goal was that 80 per cent of Jobcentre Plus customers would do this. How many do so, at present? - 17%! Any delay in getting the new IT system up and running might hamper their stated aim of achieving the £2.7billion savings by March 2015. So - if they are to succeed they'd better strive hard to get the other 63% tapping on their keyboards in the next 4 years!
So IDS will be biting his fingernails to the quick, in anticipation of the complex IT system operating smoothly and people turning to online systems to obtain their Universal Credit! Some hope!
Another problem for No 10 is:
** The new planning policy. As regular readers of this blog will know - the planning policy changes have raised a furore throughout England's 'green and pleasant land'. Yet - the Coalition was desperately hoping that it would help 'kick-start' economic growth. Georgy Osborne - who has his mind on other troubles at the moment - thought that the growth would come from brick-layers, glaziers, concrete manufacturers, plumbers, electricians - you get the picture? - all working their little socks off - all over the place. Woods would be felled! Fields would be flattened! Buildings would rise - just like Topsy - and Hey presto! the lovely dosh would roll into the Treasury. Georgy would take the credit and get a round of applause!
But - and it's now a big but - it seems the property developers have been lashing out the lolly to the Tory Party. Something smells here - and it ain't my sardines! This planning policy has raised the hackles of not only the National Trust and the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) but also of many right thinking citizens.
The claim for the new planning policy maybe 'localism' but there's localism and then there's localism! Once again - in foolish haste to get their hands on the money - the policy has been ill-thought out!
Yet a third anxiety is:
** The Health and Social Care Bill - need I say more? All that needs to be said here is 'Save the NHS'. It looks, however, as if the Lords, resplendent in their cloaks, will scupper 'Old Fox' Lansley's much heralded NHS plans - so yet another worry for No 10!
By the way, I've just noticed in The Daily Telegraph on 12 September Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor in Moscow reported that President Medvedev said:
David would have been a very good KGB agent, but in this case he would never have become a Prime Minister of the UK.
When I saw that, I got to thinking that maybe - just maybe - it would have been a good thing if 'Boy David' Cameron had been recruited, after all!
I'm off to get my sardines!
'Bye'
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