There is an interesting story in this week's Private Eye about the Government's inconsistent attitude to civil servants with a tendency to leak secrets to the opposition.
The magazine tells us that Jacqui Smith sent a blistering letter to her Tory shadow Dominic Grieve earlier this month urging him to show more 'respect for the law' by condemning all Whitehall leakers. She argued that leaks are serious irrespective of whether they relate to national security or not and that to argue otherwise is a cavalier and irresponsible attitude to take and entirely unfit for those who seek to hold high office.
However, last week Jacqui Smith's Cabinet colleague Andy Burnham appointed a new chair of OFCOM. The lucky person who will collect a salary of £200,000 for up to three days work a week is Colette Bowe. She first came to public attention in 1986 during the Westland Scandal when she leaked to the Press Association a letter from the Solicitor General to Michael Heseltine, apparently on the instruction of another civil servant, Bernard Ingham, who wanted to discredit Heseltine.
Is this appointment 'cavalier' and 'irresponsible'? Is the Culture Secretary unfit for office? We should be told.
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