employing

you would have thought that someone who criticised the new labour government for wasting money on quangos and consultants would have tried to have been squeaky clean when he took office. i guess the rules don’t apply when you believe, as david cameron does, that he was destined to lead the country.


not happy with employing his photographer and videographer at the taxpayer’s expense the evening standard has pointed out that cameron has added another two of his mates to the public payroll. (to be fair the daily mail had made note of one of the appointments a few days back).

isabel spearman has been hired as the assistant to samantha cameron. she is there to run her diary, look after her correspondence and make sure she has the right clothes. an awesomely important job, i think we all agree. strangely she had been doing this job before the election, so someone else must have been picking up the tab. guess what? not anymore, we are paying her salary now. look as long as sam cam is looking fine then i am feeling good about it. money well spent.

the other appointment is anna-maren ashford, who used to be the conservative party’s head of brand communications. (she said of the conservative squiggle, sorry logo: 'the tree is rooted and strong, a very british image, yet reflects growth, freedom and versatility.' she is now involved in the cabinet office’s ‘behavioural insight team’ (say what?) (don’t worry it isn’t all that sinister it is just looking at how government can persuade people to change their behaviour. see it is all about ‘the nudge’. actually maybe it is sinister). good to see the conservative party cutting its wage bill, yet making sure the unemployment figures don’t go up as they have shunted her onto the public pay packet. excellent stuff and a necessary job, i am sure.

according to the standard ms spearman’s role is largely administrative and ms ashford was working on strategy (well i am glad we voted for her, oh we didn’t did we).

now i don’t dispute that david cameron has a tough job, and when you are in that situation you want to have your mates around you, to give support and to keep the spirits high. i am sure that cries of “hypocrite” would be misplaced (besides dave’s mates are there to prevent him from hearing such claims). i can’t help but feel the four ‘jobs’ that have been created by the camerons could have been paid for by private sources if only to prevent claims of cronyism and to defend against accusations of wasting taxpayers’ money.

shame that cameron can’t hire some of those people in the public sector that are about to lose their job, but then they are not cameron’s mate – so tough luck. perhaps the next time i sign on andy parsons can come and take my portrait while isabel spearman can give me tips on what sorts go well with my jeans – after all they are public servants now.

don’t forget we are all in it together and our sacrifices mean that a very wealthy can have someone help her chose what dresses to wear. seems perfectly reasonable to me.