A lovely away day for the chaps and chappesses

Yesterday, 12th May 2022, the UK Government decided to treat themselves with a nice day out to Stoke-on-Trent. This was billed as a "Regional Cabinet Meeting". Given that the House of Commons was half way through debating the Queen's Speech, this seemed an odd thing to do. Let's face it; the Queen's Speech debate is the process where the government's series of lies and distortions, as set out in the Queen's Speech, are debated and therefore open to attack by the various parties and members of the opposition. One would think the government would be keen on attending this debate in order to defend and maybe even promote their plans and empty promises as outlined in the Queen's Speech. 

Obviously not. Some bright spark decided an away day would be a better use of the Cabinet's time so off they all trundled on an all expenses trip up the M6 to gibber and ramble together. For whose benefit? Well, I thought I ought to try to discover what this was all about.

First; let's look at the title of the meeting: "Regional Cabinet Meeting". (This title is not mine; it comes from the Cabinet Office's press handout). At first glance, this would appear to refer to a meeting of a "Regional Cabinet". What it actually refers to is a meeting of the government's cabinet in a "Region". To most of the government members, the term "Region" applies to anywhere with a post code that is not in London. Anyway, once I had found the press handout, I sought the details of what this was all about and what benefit did it bring to the people of the U.K. by holding the meeting in Stoke-on-Trent. Surely, there would have been hordes of local government worthies in attendance? Or representatives of local business? Or even the people who could afford to take the time away from their local food bank?

Refer to the Cabinet Office briefing:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/regional-cabinet-meeting-12-may-2022 

Nothing to see here; move along! The hand out listed none of the those attending. So no point looking to see how many worthies and food bank dodgers were there. They weren't saying. So what about what was said? Well, I can save you the trouble of reading it yourself: Bugger all! The whole press release consisted of 6 paragraphs and those 6 paragraphs were made up of 5 of a single sentence and 1 with 2 sentences.

So I am none the wiser and I suspect what was the cost of this junket, I shall remain none the wiser. Bear in mind; this was the same day Johnson was talking of sacking 91,000 civil servants in order to save a few quid!