ANDREW PIERCE: Is a planned rail overhaul stuck in sidings due to civil servants working from home?
With the rail strikes showing no sign of abating, Transport Secretary Mark Harper has pledged to establish a new body, Great British Railways, to reinvigorate the broken system.
It will be responsible for timetables, ticket prices, revenue collection and managing rail infrastructure. So you would imagine the Department for Transport is a hive of activity.
Not a bit of it. Figures released last week show that Harper’s department has spent £121,000 in the past year on IT equipment and office furniture for staff working from home. No wonder attendance in the office over the same period was a mere 62 per cent.
Transport Minister Jesse Norman was unable to shed any light on it. ‘The department is unable to provide a further breakdown related to the specific categories of equipment,’ he said in a written Commons answer. And what are other departments spending on working from home equipment? They conveniently don’t keep centralised figures. As for office attendance, it’s still dismal across Whitehall.
Figures released last week show that Transport Secretary Mark Harper’s department has spent £121,000 in the past year on IT equipment and office furniture for staff working from home
With the rail strikes showing no sign of abating, Transport Secretary Mark Harper has pledged to establish a new body, Great British Railways, to reinvigorate the broken system.
The Home Office, grappling with Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s flagship Stop the Boats policy — currently being eviscerated by the unelected House of Lords — only had a 31 per cent turnout in the last week of May.
And the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs managed only 29 per cent attendance that week. Were they all working on the farm?
Kelly’s a cut above
Michael Gove says Parliamentary hairdresser Kelly Dodge deserves her OBE for services to Boris Johnson’s unruly mop. The Levelling Up Secretary told the Kite Festival in Oxfordshire: ‘She’s been responsible for more cuts than any minister.’
Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley was at London’s Freemasons Hall for the memorial service of Lord Young of Graffham, the businessman who served in Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet.
Sir Peter Bottomley, 78, recalled a lively conversation between Lord Young and Norman Tebbit, then Tory chairman, shortly before the 1987 general election
In his local newspaper column, Bottomley, 78, recalled a lively conversation between Lord Young and Norman Tebbit, then Tory chairman, shortly before the 1987 general election: ‘When the dust had settled, Margaret Thatcher told them not to appear so often on television as they were old. Neither of them reminded her that she was older than both of them.’
Advertising its summer intern scheme, the Labour Party put together a group of ethnically diverse young people for a photo opportunity in Westminster. They were snapped outside a building familiar to Westminster watchers. It was none other than Tory Party HQ at Matthew Parker Street. No surprise that the photo has now been deleted.
Veteran broadcaster ‘Diddy’ David Hamilton recalls appearing last year on ITV’s This Morning to talk about the success of Boom Radio. Asked by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby how he looked so youthful at 84, Hamilton replied: ‘Clean living. I recommend it.’
Remember all heroes, Rishi
During his successful trip to the White House, Rishi Sunak posted images of himself laying a remembrance wreath to mark the anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.
Rishi Sunak posted images of himself laying a remembrance wreath to mark the anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944
He said: ‘Seventy-nine years ago, British and American troops were landing on the beaches of Normandy.’ But around 14,000 Canadians also landed or parachuted into Normandy and suffered more than 1,000 casualties, including 359 deaths. The Spectator quotes Toronto MP Kevin Vuong: ‘Not only was it our troops that advanced the farther inland of any Allies forces, many Canadians also made the ultimate sacrifice during the Dieppe Raid that led to the successful D-Day tactics.’
To think that Rishi was hailing a new era in relations with Canada when he met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month.
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