‘Let's wipe the smug smiles from the faces of these quangocrats'. ‘They were spending money on "days at the races"'.
One of these quotes is from the Daily Mail, the other from the CLG secretary of state. The Mail is a privately owned newspaper which is able to pour its bile over people who work in the public service. Mr Pickles is an elected politician entitled to use his mandate to reform local government. What he is very unwise to do is to ape the Mail by smearing the Audit Commission.
On a Friday in mid-August, a good time to bury bad news, he scrapped it. He gave a number of defensible reasons why the body should go. They will all have gone over the head of the public.
