WESTMINSTER INSIDE TRACK

(As featured in George Valentine's Retirement Plan, published by Strathmere Press copyright 2014)


BACK  DOOR  MAN

TODAY, 11 a.m. 

No sooner is the Prime Minister back from his summer break than a top Harley Street man slips into Number 10 by the rear entrance and stays for two hours. The Number 10 Press Office seems confused. First they said he wasn’t there, then it was to see someone else, now it’s to treat a toe injury from a coastal bike ride. Two hours to prescribe an aspirin at Harley Street rates?  If the PM has a health problem shouldn’t the nation know about it? And if it is a stubbed toe could someone tell us who’s footing the bill?
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STYLE  UPGRADE  AT  DEFRA

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Blair had his babes, Sarkozy and Berlusconi theirs, now DEFRA has ex-supermodel Eleanor Porter, the planet’s most glamorous politician. Evidently the new Parliamentary Under Secretary is having an effect on officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Designer labels abound, there’s no sign of dandruff and a source tells us, at a recent retreat, two director generals and a scientific adviser were wearing The Lady Eleanor, the fragrance launched in La Porter’s modelling heyday. We know the department is responsible for air quality, but maybe they’re taking it a bit far?


CHAMBERLAIN  CHALLENGE?

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Meanwhile the Home Secretary would like to bring back hanging. And so would most of us it seems. A YouGov poll following Ken Chamberlain’s off the cuff remark on Gloucester radio last week places the Home Secretary ahead of the Prime Minister as the person most would like to lead the country. The gaffe set Marsham Street civil servants scurrying and has widened the rift between the PM and his former ally. 

And just what is Robert White up to? The Cities Minister and Chamberlain yes-man has been popping up everywhere playing down the prospect of a leadership challenge. WIT thinks the minister doth protest too much. Our money is on the Home Secretary raising the standard for a battle royal.

LORDING  IT

Finally, happy birthday Lord Ettingsall, former Pensions Minister, 100 this week and still going strong. Setting the bar for the next hike in the retirement age perhaps?


WITLINKS

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PM's summer poll disaster/Exposed – ministers on the beach/World’s Top Ten Capital Punishments/Tea Room Talk

Your eyes and ears on Westminster and Whitehall; exposing the conspiracies and whitewash at the heart of government; a virtual voice in a new age of accountability


WIT'S BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB

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Power corrupts; and those who want it get it by exposing those who have it. It’s the circle of life and George Valentine is its middleman.  

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