You’ve got to feel sorry for new ministers (ok, ok, only a tiny bit).
No sooner than they get offered a new job – and long before they’re on top of the brief – they have to pretend they know what they’re talking about.
Our new health secretary’s understandably uncomfortable opening bid was to babble on about how everyone has to become a gym bunny. Andy Burnham clearly hasn’t met many patients yet.
If he’s serious about it, he is going to have to take a leaf out of the French book. So concerned are they about the health of their prisoners, they’ve ‘encouraged’ 200 of them to ride a mini-Tour de France.
Accompanied by 125 guards, they’ll cover 1,500 miles on stages between Lille and Paris (visiting the 17 different towns with jails on the way). And, of course, break away sprints have been banned.
Surely we should pack Andy and few more of our beloved MPs off to France on a fact finding mission during this summer recess. It would all be at the tax payers’ expense with just one proviso - they have to show the way and swim the channel to get there…
