SPADS, eh?
And me thinking about Special Assault and Destroying Sections.
The Coalition government has released the names of all its special advisers who are paid more than £58,200. David Cameron has two men on salaries just under the ceiling for the posts. Craig Oliver and Andrew Cooper each trouser £140,000 a year and another adviser, Edward Llewellyn, gets £125,000. Seventeen other Spads to the …
I thought he's the man they refer to as the "Chief of Staff" at 10 Downing Street.
Should that not be a civil service post?
The fellow who said he did *not* want Cameron briefed about "alleged" phone hacking allegations at NoTW to ensure there was no suggestion that Dave had bent any police ears.
BTW It seems he also is a "former" employee of NI.
Funny how many of those people turn up. It seems 10 of the 40 person Met Police PR unit are ex NI staff.
And it seems *all* major UK political parties have one or two lurking about (although the BNP and UKIP seem don't seem to have any).
All at such "reasonable" salaries. You'd be a fool not to employ such experienced staff.
"Embedded" as it were with new masters.
Hardly surprising though to be honest, they'll have gotten the job due to their connections to the press (ie having worked at either TV, radio or dead tree news agencies). Only trouble being the fact that no self respecting BBC or Grauniad employee will work for a Tory, and NI own pretty much all the rest with a couple of notable exceptions. Bit difficult to hire decent staff when the pool is pretty much the scum that no one else wants to employ
all these SPADS will be independent, honest and above reproach. They will also be free of interest conflicts, not have any way to gain financially from the advice given. They will have no hidden agenda nor links to any business that might be advantaged from the advice they impart.
After all it is not unreasonable to expect integrity from public employees and their advisors