Politicians are renowned for not answering questions. Communities secretary John Denham yesterday gave a masterclass in how not to not answer the question. Yes, you did read that correctly.
Peter Mandelson is the king of the sidestep with his famous "what your listeners really want to know is..." but when poor John Denham tried this ruse on Radio 4's Today in a discussion on council cuts his footwork proved to be as deft as John Sergeant's on Strictly Come Dancing.
Over the seven-minute interview, presenter Evan Davis asked Denham just two questions, in essence: what plans should local authorities be making for their budgets after 2011; and, having asked that four times and received no answer, whether local authorities could in fact look forward to increases in spending (asked twice).
Denham's initial response to the first question was an attempt to pre-empt David Cameron's spending plans as if the Conservatives would be forming the next government. As if.
Evan Davies interrupted and tried again. Denham must have thought he had deflected the question successfully when he thought he had summoned the power of Peter Mandelson's trademark put-down. Sadly, the conmmunities secretary got it out of context. "That may be what your listeners want to hear," he retorted.
Too right it was - and we never did hear. Neither did we hear the answer to the second question.
Before the interview, Today revealed the findings of a BBC survey showing that half of local authorities expected to cut adult care and one-third children's services.
So how many jobs would that entail? Both service users and staff deserve an answer and Denham should have been in a position to respond to the BBC's estimate of 25,000. Interestingly, although he didn't say a lot, he didn't deny a lot either.
To paraphrase D:Ream's anthem adopted by Labour in 1997 - and something Denham did admit yesterday - "Things can only get tighter".
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