Rewind Button

Until today I didn't know anything about Housing Minister Caroline Flint, other than the fact that she is a Labour Minister, and therefore morally bankrupt. This morning however, I actually feel sympathy for the woman. I'm willing to bet she has her head in her hands somewhere right now, wishing she could press the rewind button on her life, and replay that part where she walked in to Downing Street yesterday, in front of herds of photographers, but this time, with the confidential paperwork tucked neatly in a briefcase, and not on full display to the world in general.

In case you missed the story, Ms Flint was attending a cabinet meeting yesterday, and she was delivering bad news about the housing market. Apparently house prices are going to slump, and new house building projects are stalled. I don't think this is much of a surprise to anyone. The problem is that the government has been trying to deny that it's happening. And they could have continued to deny it until Ms Flint went striding into Downing Street with her notes on display. You have to hand it to those boys. Within minutes of it being photographed, the picture was on every news site in the world, and the visible parts of her documents transcribed.

I am of course more than a little cynical by nature, and it crossed my mind that perhaps this act of carelessness was not accidental. One has to ask, what kind of clown walks past a crowd of press photographers waving a bunch of confidential papers? But I can't see why she would engineer such an elaborate leak. There can be no benefit to the government as far as I can see.

I did make a quick movie of the vending machine in our office today, but frankly, it's horse shit. I had to hold the camera with one hand and operate the machine with the other. Ingmar Bergman I am not. If I get around to it, I'll post it tomorrow, if I'm not too ashamed.

I have a horrible cold.

It's going to rain tomorrow.