The Cabinet is on the move

Unfortunately, it’s only a physical move and not one against Gordon Brown.

Our Dear Leader is taking his senior comrades on an away day to Durham, which just so happens to be a marginal Labour seat.  The MP, Roberta Blackman-Woods, is defending a 3,274 majority.  These little gatherings cost the taxpayer an average of £200,000.

What’s more the charade causes much inconvenience to the local community.  The police charge comes to the not- so-cheap total of £140,000.

The Cabinet meet for 90 minutes or so and then they spend the rest of the day on party political matters, which is too much for Tory MP Douglas Carswell:

Gordon Brown has been caught red-handed using government money to fund political activity. It is clear that these meetings are simply designed to ship the Cabinet into marginal seats to secure good PR for Labour’s election campaign at taxpayers’ expense.

Tom Harris does his best to defend the complete waste of our money, but it really will not do.

When a similar exercise was held in Exeter, Harriet Harman revealed their true intent:

This will be a chance for me to hear directly from you as party members in a private meeting to talk about the issues and campaigning activity in the South West. It will be particularly helpful for me to hear from you in the run-up to the general election about the activities taking place in the area

These trips are barefaced electioneering exercises and are typical of the way Gordon Brown thinks he can influence the voters in this pre-election period.

Nothing more, nothing less.