It looks like the Home Office is going to be split in two creating a Justice Ministry headed up by Charlie Falconer, the unelected Lord Chancellor.

It has been hypothesised that the proposed changes to the Home Office are a ruse to take the heat off the cash for peerages investigation after one of Bliar’s bitches got her collar felt by the Metropolitan Police in the early hours of Friday and the subsequent complaint by the police over undue pressure from ministers.

It is really quite disturbing that the minister heading up the department responsible for prisons and probation would be an unelected Scottish Labour stooge.  It’s bad enough that Falconer is in charge of the Department for Constitutional Affairs when he has no mandate from the electorate to hold any position in government.

The Home Office is, of course, a large department and appears to be too much for one minister to keep control of.  However, the Home Secretary is one of the four most powerful positions in the cabinet behind the Lord Chancellor, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Breaking up the Home Office will reduce the influence of the Home Secretary which means that the cabinet is under the control of the three stooges – Bliar, Falconer and Brown.

The former boss of the Rural Payments Agency has apologised for the agency’s shambolic administration of the payment of farming subsidies.

Thanks to the RPA’s inability do their job, countless farmers were forced to sell their farms or go bankrupt.  The whole cock-up cost English farmers an estimated £21m but only affected Welsh and Scottish farmers who also farmed in England as the administration of farming subsidies is handled by agencies of their devolved governments under a different scheme to England.

Unfortunately, apologies don’t pay the bills and this apology is too little too late.

The head of communications at Shropshire County Council has been suspended from his job pending an investigation for trying to cheat a BBC poll.

The county council is trying to promote the establishment of a unitary authority covering the whole county of Shropshire (excluding Telford & Wrekin) – regionalisation by another name – but has been faced with overwhelming opposition from the outset from both members of the public and some district councils in the county.

The BBC had a poll on their website asking if Shropshire should get a unitary authority following a BBC Politics Show on the subject last Sunday.  Paul Masterman, the head of communications at Shropshire County Council, decided to send an email to all employees telling them how to cheat the poll so they could vote more than once.

The email was leaked to the BBC, the poll was closed and Mr Masterman has been suspended.  The best bit of it is, though, despite the cheating by the council the poll still showed only 32% support for the proposals!

I had a doctors appointment this morning and as I turned up 10 minutes early I went to the chemists next door to pick up my father-in-law’s prescription.

There were eight people behind the counter at the chemists but only one person serving.  I had to wait 10 minutes to get served while the other 7 staff milled around getting things off shelves and chatting.

It looks like the school leaving age in England is going to be raised to 18 by 2013.

Apparently, this is to mop up the 18% of children that don’t currently go on to further education because 82% of kids going on to college and university isn’t acceptable.

Frankly, I’m astonished that 82% of kids go on to further education.  Who are the 18% that don’t?  Do they want to go on to further education or do they have jobs lined up in a family firm, no desire to continue education or perhaps they simply don’t have the necessary mental capacity to do further education.

The Chancellor is already trying to decide the best way to make us save 50% of our gross annual income because he’s already spent our pensions blowing up Afghanistan and Iraq and so many OAP’s are living to an inconveniently old age that the drain on our taxes has reached the critical point where the retirement age has had to be increased to keep the baliffs from reposessing Downing Street.  It is astonishing that the British government should now plan to add an even greater burden on the taxpayer by forcing 16 year olds to stay on in education for an extra 2 years against their will.

Kids currently spend a minimum of 11 years at school, most spend 12.  In 6 years time we’re going to see kids spending 14 years of their lives in compulsary education.  Will boarding schools be required to provide married quarters for childhood sweathearts who decide to get married at 16 or will the minimum age for getting married be increased to make sure you don’t end up with married couples spending double Science arguing about who’s cooking the dinner when they get home from school and why they have to have the mother-in-law round for Sunday dinner that weekend?  What about couples who decide to start a family at 16?  It’s perfectly legal – will schools start providing crêche facilities?  Who will pay for them?  Will 16 year old girls be entitled to maternity leave from school?  What about the benefits that will be paid out to these people who have a family at 16 but can’t work because they have to go to school until they’re 18?  Ok, so most 16 year old parents would rather laze around on benefits rather than get a job but not all of them do.  Upping the age you can get married to 18 won’t work either.  You need your parents consent to get married at 16 or 17 in England now but there’s nothing to stop you going to Scotland and getting married at 16 without your parents permission because the law is different there.