Urgent Business Elsewhere

Two of Gordon's most delightful resources, Agent Smith of the Ministry of Unfitness for Purpose and the Upper Miliband of the Ministry for Lesser Breeds, have been requested to appear before Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights. The request appears to have been a polite one: "We don't want to hang people out to dry, this isn't about pointing the finger, but we do want to get at the truth," said the chair of the committee, Andrew Dismore. Perhaps it was this wishy-washy tone, so non-New New Labour in its lack of punitive sanctimony, which persuaded Agent Smith and the Upper Miliband that, having nothing to hide and hence nothing to fear, they might as well also have nothing to say. According to Dismore, the committee intends no more than to "make recommendations about how this [sort of embarrassment] can be avoided in the future"; but since neither Agent Smith nor the Upper Miliband seems to have much capacity for embarrassment in any case, no doubt their time could be better spent. They must both have plenty more urgent business to deal with: hair to wash, punctures to mend, that sort of thing.