bizarre story about Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin chucking government papers in park litter bins

[edam]

here - this government gets stranger and stranger. Theresa May plagiarising speeches from UKIP, Liam Fox and his 'special' friend, and now Oliver Letwin acting very oddly indeed. Does he have a phobia of office paper bins, or shredders, or something?

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

It does sound a little like a not very interesting episode of Spooks. :) I can see why someone would want to read his correspondence in the park rather than a stuffy office. But throwing things away - even if they're not critical papers - sounds odd for someone who is not exactly new to parliament.

Liam Fox is almost certainly toast :)

[edam]

yeah, I can't see the scriptwriters going for it, really. Here's hoping the Information Commissioner gives him a very stiff telling off - MPs shouldn't be so ruddy cavalier with correspondence from constituents (which is what he's claiming it was - although he's hardly going to admit putting national security at risk by dumping classified documents, is he).

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

I starting to wonder if there's something odd going on with civil servants? Mr Werrity appears to have been taking the role (amongst other things) of just that - a like-minded friend in what is apparently a rather hostile department. A lot of the gaffes made by the last administration on defence contracts, for example, would have been organised by the same civil service support team that he has inherited. Maybe Fox doesn't trust them? And then for Letwin to bypass all his mandarins, skive off to the park and be reading and disposing of papers,... maybe he's not completely enamoured with his civil service minders either? Theresa May I've never quite understood... but I definitely think someone stitched her up like a kipper on that cat story.

They need to get to the bottom of the Fox story because, the longer it drags on, the worse it looks for everyone, not least the PM.

[Teetik]

Well that's Fox gone
Phew.
There will be more 'irregularity' I am sure of it.
I guess we may never find out where the golden eggs ended up in this case.

[breadandbutterfly]

Re the civil service, as a civil servant friend pointed out to me today, if ANY civil servant was caught doing what Letwin has just admitted doing, he'd be out on his ear for gross misconduct as quick as anything.

One law for them (no matter how incompetent/criminal/ridiculous), one law for the rest of us.

as usual.

[ChickenLickn]

"alpha foxtrot tango, the intelligence papers will be in the bin, st james park. over and out"

I wonder if he got a good price for them?

[GoreSplattersHouse]

They will appear in the Daily Fail or the Scum soon! No other excuse works.