The machinations of government have seldom been sexy since the days of Christine Keeler.
So how to keep journalists, and the public at large, from falling asleep?
Just to get us hacks in the mood for taking an interest in Whitehall, it sometimes likes to show us a flash of stocking-top in the form of that great press officer’s device, the embargoed press release. This goes out on the understanding that its contents will not be published until a predetermined date.
A case in point is the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s irresistible tome, the Annual review of activities in 2005, which, according to the emailed blurb, “considers the progress which has been made since the last review”. Remember that?
Why, though, has it taken the QCA until now to find out what it did the previous year?
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