Bigger government

Some hollow amusement resulted from the news that G.Brown's cabinet is now too large to fit in the cabinet room and will have to make use of a larger room. In fact the cabinet size is up to 50% larger than the average over the last 100 years. The costs will have escalated, even if increasingly cabinet members are "unpaid" peers.

Three things follow:

• The Cabinet will be too large to allow much meaningful discussion, and will be a mere sounding board for Brown and his main cabinet members, an announcement of what has been decided elsewhere.
• The size is both a reflection of the ever intruding state into formerly private areas and is a cause of more intrusion, as the inflated numbers all devise bigger and better ways of achieving this.
• Brown has set up a cabinet within a cabinet - a small group, called G8, - I presume the G refers to his forename. This small group of trusted henchmen will meet every week to make the effective decisions which the main cabinet will rubber stamp.