The Former Treasury chief secretary's message to his successor

mbga9pgf

No !!!!!!, I kid you not, this was the sum total of his handover letter.

Laws says when he arrived in office he found a letter from his predecessor, Liam Byrne. It started "Dear Chief Secretary" and it contained just one sentence.

I'm afraid to tell you there is no money left.

Laws says that was not particularly helpful.

:eek::eek::eek:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/may/17/economy-georgeosborne

Nosht

Its been like this for years.

N.

MissMoneypenny

Laws says when he arrived in office he found a letter from his predecessor, Liam Byrne. It started "Dear Chief Secretary" and it contained just one sentence.

I'm afraid to tell you there is no money left.

Laws says that was not particularly helpful."

It will take this country many, many years to recover from the Blair/Brown years.

MoneySavingUser

yeah well this is all you should expect from Liam Byrne and NuLabour!

Wookster

This is astonishing. The fact that it was left in jest shows how utterly incapable the Labour government was of understanding the gravity of the public sector deficit.

Perhaps, worse than this, is that the Tories (and the Lib Dems) will have to clean up another huge Labour mess and be tarred as despicable and political party non grata by yet more people who will refuse to vote Tory come hell or high water.

Liam Byrne should apologise for this utterly tasteless gesture.

Gorgeous_George

I think the fact that this was made public says more about David Laws.

New governments always discredit the previous one. It is nothing new. Maybe the note should have read...

p.s.

GG

baby_boomer

It shouldn't have been left.

It's not remotely funny except in a "we've totally screwed you for next five years and isn't it a laugh?" sense.

What about the national interest?

Exocet

I hate Labour as much as the next man. But the note was a joke, an ill advised one in a po faced world where every little gesture or statement is analysed to death, but still a joke. A nice touch from one man to another - it's what we do best - banter. I hope before the party spin doctors got to Laws he had some vestige of humanity which allowed him to smile, chuckle even.

nickmason

Doesn't this lend strength to the argument that - Mandelson and Adonis excluded - the Labour party wanted out of government, and therefore completely failed to engage with the Liberal Democrats in coalition talks?

I honestly find it difficult to comprehend how any party can think it's a "good time to get out" without hanging its head in absolute shame, and recognising that they've failed. Every party must think it's the best for the country - they keep talking about "national interest" - surely in dire troubles, they should - as they said in the election - try even harder to keep control. To refuse to take on the burden; and then to laugh about the mess they've left behind; is disgusting.

lostinrates

I think its quite funny: as exocet says, not unlike the wit often found here.

I cannot believe it was written without thought that it would be shared.

Cleaver

nickmason wrote: »

they keep talking about "national interest" - surely in dire troubles, they should - as they said in the election - try even harder to keep control. To refuse to take on the burden; and then to laugh about the mess they've left behind; is disgusting.

As Exocet pointed out though, this isn't the whole party laughing about the mess they've behind, it's just one man's small joke to another, and it's no big deal. If I were the guy moving in to the office I would have had a bit of a chuckle, framed it for the wall and then carried on with my life.