Bin there. Done that?

A spotter’s badge goes to Ruth Sparkes, PR and communications supremo for colleges from Cornwall to Harlow, who reports the existence of a poster about the dangers of swine flu featuring a strangely familiar slogan.

Stuck on the wall of a loo and reminding lavatory novices to wash, it warns: “It’s on our hands.”

Could this be related in any way to the well-known Learning and Skills Council slogan: “Our Future. It’s in our hands”? Inquiring minds want to know.

On the other (immaculately clean) hand, whether that future is more likely to involve achieving world-class skills for Britain or seeing civilised society wiped out by a viral pandemic, FErret is too afraid to speculate.

But it does make you think: perhaps the swine flu and further education slogans got mixed up at the printers and the order of the day for colleges is now: “Catch it. Kill it. Bin it.”

Give us a minute .

Still, at least the Learning and Skills Council is making every effort to keep the public - which pays the bills - informed about progress towards inevitable failure against the 2020 Leitch targets.

So it is that FErret is able to read the minutes of the funding body’s crucial meetings on its website - sometimes within two months of their happening!

Of course, not all parts of the organisation are able to keep up with the electrifying pace of the national council, which has its April meeting as its most recent publication.

It is entirely understandable that, with so much on their plates, four regions have not been able to publish any account of their decision-making on their websites since 2007.

As the site of the LSC South East so memorably puts it: “You’ll be able to find the minutes of recent meetings of the regional council below .” You click and it comes up “No results.”

It’s not as if there’s any particular reason the LSC’s activities should be under close scrutiny at the moment. Carry on!