THERE’S more bad news for Lucy. She’s in danger of finding herself hoisted on to the scales after a Shropshire school governor complained the volume of official paperwork she received weighed “more than David Blunkett’s dog”.
Malcolm Wicks, chairman of the Commons education select committee, mentioned Eva Allan’s claim at the opening of a meeting with 120 governors. “Somehow we have got to weigh David Blunkett’s dog,” he said gravely. The Diary says that’s no way to treat a lady.
Luckily for Lucy, the idea is not as simple as it sounds. “We can call for papers and persons but I’m not sure we can call for a dog,” Malcolm admitted. Well, quite. Committees must never exceed their powers.
Having just completed a mammoth inquiry into OFSTED, the committee may balk at taking on another major challenge so soon: not the weighing of Lucy, but getting a weight for the paperwork received by governors. That, Malcolm suggested, would be the really tricky bit ...