Miles Collins

Keep those papers covered Minister!

Here’s an amusing word of warning for any high profile business or political types out there. When making your way to an important meeting be sure to avoid the attention of photographers with big zoom lenses or they might end up seeing more than they should.

Caroline Flint, the UK’s Housing Minister in Gordon Brown’s labour government inadvertently walked past waiting photographers carrying her typed notes for a cabinet meeting on the current British housing crisis in a plastic sleeve.

Pin sharp lenses managed to pick out the text detailing a predicted housing crash whilst Alastair Darling, the Groucho Marx lookalike Chancellor was trying desperately to convince the public that the housing market was alive and well!

Despite the memo stating : “We can’t know how bad it will get”, “Housebuilding is stalling and new starts are down 10% on last year” and “Given present trends they will clearly show sizeable falls in prices later this year” Ms Flint denied that the memo forecast a housing crash!

In a world of paparazzi chasing Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse it is nice to see something worthwhile come from a press photograph, we seem to care far more about badly behaved ‘celebrities’ than politicians lying through their back teeth.