Title

DCLG senior policy analyst Gavin Smith is enjoying a coffee in the DCLG cafeteria with special advisor Geoff Tension. Gavin: I've heard of sofa government but this is ridiculous. Geoff: Come again? Gavin: I refer to the increasing use by ministers of sofas. Geoff: You can't always wait for decisions taken around the Cabinet table. The machinery sometimes works more smoothly in an informal setting such as a lounge or private study. Take Tony Blair's den for example. This eventually became where all the important decisions were made and… Gavin: What are you on about? I'm talking about sofas. Geoff: So am I. The process of policy-making sometimes derided as sofa government, or as the dictionary says 'the British English equivalent of the American English phrase kitchen cabinet.' Gavin: No I mean sofas as places where you lose keys and find money. Geoff: Don't be facetious. Since when has any minister lost important keys down the back of a departmental sofa? Gavin: I meant more about finding money. Geoff: It's true that occasional bits of small change have turned up. I believe Sir Gus O'Donnell discovered a 50p bit down the back of the Treasury settee the other week. Of course he had to declare it. Gavin: I don't regard £600 million on housing as small change. Or £250 million on having weekly bin collections. Or £800 million to freeze council tax. Geoff: What on earth do you mean? Have you been at the No 10 sherry cabinet? Gavin: Well those were the sums apparently found down the back of the DCLG sofa over the past few weeks. I can't think of where else they found the money. It's certainly not in the departmental estimates. I can only assume it was deliberately concealed there. Geoff: Now Gavin, about that transfer to works and pensions you were considering…

Title

Corridors of Power

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