Bill Rammell, the further and higher education minister, was unable to attend the Association for College Management conference in Birmingham last week as expected, but treated the delegates to a speech on video.

My spies noticed a rather obvious “jump cut” in the film. I’m told the missing section includes an unplanned comment from the minister, followed by the words, “Oh, I’ve gone a bit off the script. Can we edit that out?”

Apparently, Mr Rammell didn’t want to give the “wrong impression”. About what, we don’t know. Insiders remain tight-lipped.