Hot Air and Cold Water

Where the sword of reshuffle cannot avenge, the gag of enforced discretion may sometimes appease. "It is not helpful for the Government to attack individuals" said an unnamed adviser to the Secretary for Talking about the Environment. This is quite true, of course. If one wishes to be helpful, one does not refer to rich people as "the irresponsible face of capitalism". At worst, one plants an anonymous smear with a co-operative news editor. That, after all, is what freedom of information is all about.

The Department for Environmental Profitability has denied that Ian Pearson suffered a "humiliating dressing down" over his comments about the airline industry's mysterious disinclination to do as it is told in the absence of any law to compel it. He has been told, no doubt, that the Government is listening and appreciates his concerns, but that a line must now be drawn. Humiliating it may have been, to be treated like a mere member of the public; but it was not a dressing down in the accepted sense of the term. It was merely a measure to "avoid fuelling controversy", controversy having no place in this Government except where such matters as Muslim headgear are concerned.

Ian Pearson has not been silenced, according to the Department of Environmental Freedom by Raising Airports; but "he has been told not to do any more interviews which might accelerate the story". Otherwise, he can say whatever he likes.