The Right Thing to Do

As with putting workers in boardrooms and rehousing the victims of Grenfell Tower, the dead-eyed warden's pledges on dealing with modern slavery have proven a bit Liberal Democrat. Since the victims of modern slavery tend not to be landlords, tax-dodgers or media moguls called Rupert, the Home Office has no interest in what is being spent on protecting them or in what effect the spending has, does not care whether services meet quality standards, and is about as concerned over safe houses as one might expect. This all works reasonably well as a deterrent to victims, who might otherwise come forward seeking help when imprisonment and deportation might offend; but the National Audit Office has very tactlessly chosen to release its report at one of those points in the news cycle when Tumbledown Tessie is trying to convince someone - anyone - that her pious proclamations might occasionally be worth the oxygen and muscle force required to snarl them out. Hence, the main conclusion which the Government is likely to draw from the NAO's report is the clear moral and ethical imperative to privatise the National Audit Office.