Pathological indifference to the goings on of the Liberal Democrats in Birmingham offers the only plausible explanation for the scale of national exposure given to chair of the public accounts committee (PAC) Margaret Hodge's reheating of the FiReControl fiasco.
To those hitherto unconcerned with the actualities of how £500m was poured into creating nine locally-unwanted regional fire centres, topped off with a more than average Whitehall IT disaster and immense £431m lease liabilities stretching two decades into the future, the apportioning of responsibility and blame seems reasonable.
