Will the BBC report this news story, a news story that doesn't fit their pro-Labour 'narrative' (update)

Further to this post from earlier this evening, I see that Sky News have some more detail (new in bold):

'Sir Nicholas Macpherson, Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, had been giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on changes to Whitehall governance.

He said spending at the Ministry of Defence under the last government was "out of control", adding it had been put into "special measures" and ordered to report on a month-by-month basis on spending.

The committee then asked if this had been the case at other departments and Sir Nicholas admitted the Department of Health and Department of Education had problems with their finances during the last decade.

Looking back to the previous system, Sir Nicholas said: "There was a point in the last decade when the Ministry of Defence lost control of public spending."


Challenged by Conservative MP Jo Johnson over whether he would say the MoD was the only major department to have lost control of its spending, Sir Nicholas replied: "No, I wouldn't."


Sky's Deputy Political Editor Joey Jones said the comment was "very important", adding: "The reason that this is significant is because this is absolutely at the core of the economic argument that is going on at the moment.


"Ed Miliband has acknowledged there were certain failings in the way in which the Labout government ran the economy, notably in terms of their lax regulation of the banks.


"But he absolutely refuses to admit spending was not under proper control, saying national debt was at a low level and the deficit was running at a low level before the banking crisis.


"This is important because he is such a senior figure and civil servant."'

Earlier I said:

'So far no mention of this story on the BBC. I wonder if they will report the story and if they do then where they will bury the story and who they will quote to contradict Sir Nicholas Macpherson.'

As of 18:36 I can see nothing about this story on the BBC news website yet, I wonder how long it will be before the BBC will cover the story or will they really ignore it...

Will the BBC report this news story, a story that doesn't fit their pro-Labour 'narrative'?

Sky News are reporting that:

'A top Treasury civil servant has said Government departments "lost control" of public spending under Labour.

Sir Nicholas Macpherson, permanent secretary of the Treasury, had been giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee when he made the comments.

He was firstly asked about spending at the Ministry of Defence under the last government and said it was "out of control".

The committee then asked if this had been the case at other departments and Sir Macpherson admitted he had concerns about the Department of Health and Department of Education.'

So far no mention of this story on the BBC. I wonder if they will report the story and if they do then where they will bury the story and who they will quote to contradict Sir Nicholas Macpherson.

Why worry? It's not as though the Country is broke because of your last boss.

The Mail reports that:

"Treasury officials have been told to ‘shelve problems’ to help keep their stress levels down in the face of Britain’s dire public finances.

A 70-page taxpayer-funded guide to ‘stress awareness and management’ advises officials to put off difficult decisions to another day if they are causing them anxiety.

It includes tips such as ‘learn how to laugh at yourself’ and a six-point lesson in how to ‘relax your thighs’.

And it reassures staff that it is ‘okay’ to switch off, day dream, make errors and even fail, stating: ‘Stress may be avoided if I allow myself to make mistakes… recognising that sometimes I will make mistakes and that is OK to make mistakes.’"

"It's OK to mistake mistakes"; well that's OK for Gordon Brown then.
"put off difficult decisions to another day"; until after the general election maybe?

I didn't know, nobody knew, it is an unpredicted unprecidented global crisis that started in the USA

I didn't know, nobody knew, it is an unpredicted unprecidented global crisis that started in the USA - I think that is a fair précis of Gordon Brown's position re the current economic storm. We all know his line is bullshit, but aided by the BBC he continues to peddle it.

Today news breaks that may cause Gordon Brown and the BBC some problems if they try to continue to push this "narrative". The FT reports:

"Gordon Brown failed to act on Treasury warnings in 2004 that the government was woefully unprepared to handle the collapse of a financial institution, says a highly critical official report.

An inquiry by the National Audit Office, published on Friday, finds that Treasury officials identified serious flaws in the “tripartite” regulatory structure created by Mr Brown but decided it was not “a priority” to fix the problems.

Mr Brown, who was chancellor at the time, was on Thursday night facing calls to explain the Treasury’s inaction. Under the tripartite system, regulation of Britain’s financial institutions was divided between the Treasury, the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England."

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

The FT report also points out the emerging split between Gordon Brown's puppet Chancellor and Gordon Brown. It seems that Alistair Darling has finally "grown a pair":

"Alistair Darling, chancellor, on Thursday distanced himself from the “light-touch” regulatory system once lauded by Mr Brown as he endorsed calls this week by Lord Turner, FSA chairman, for a more “intrusive” bank supervisory regime. “There were people 10 years ago or more recently arguing for more deregulation and a lighter touch but I was not one of them,” Mr Darling told the Commons Treasury committee."

The report also draws a line from the Treasury that may be worth some checking (my emphasis):

"After contingency planning exercises in 2004, the report says the Treasury was “aware of potential shortcomings” in its arrangement for dealing with struggling financial institutions.

The Treasury denies being ill-prepared and insists it had begun a complex and difficult process of reform. A spokesman said the report found the Treasury “was right to take the decisions it did”. "

Perhaps the Treasury could supply some details of this "complex and difficult process of reform" that had begun in 2004.