Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Conversation topics

The Daily Telegraph has found that Andrew Rawnsley entertained Jeremy Heywood, top civil servant at Number 1o, to a meal on 17th September 2009. If the claim date is the right date, then dinner might have been on, because the boss, Gordon Brown, was off on the Eurostar to an EU leaders meeting in Brussels.

Topics in the news that week ? Journalists trying to make Gordon Brown say the word "cuts" in relation to Labour. Topics in the air ? The blogosphere was bouncing round with suggestions that Gordon was on medication, and the rumours of tantrums were on the boil. Mervyn King wasn't, probably, making things easier, by saying he wasn't sure quantitative easing was working.

Fast track civil servant Jeremy Heywood, now in his late forties, worked under Chancellors Ken Clarke, Norman Lamont and Gordon Brown. He became Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999 , and was described as as 'indispensable'. Then he got a taste of the private sector as a managing director at Morgan Stanley, but was persuaded into the Cabinet Office in 2007 by Gordon Brown, who picked him again as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister in 2008. (Here's a little insight into the basic workings of Jeremy's world from last year. )

It would be interesting to know how today's early morning catch-up with the Prime Minister went....

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