Government must hone its surgical skills and cut where it hurts least

I WAS upbraided in the street by a fairly senior civil servant last week. He was polite, of course, as all senior civil servants are. But he made it pretty clear he thought I was talking through a certain part of my anatomy when it came to public spending.

He had been reading the last few columns I’ve written here about how the Government spends our money and where it could be cut without inflicting too much pain.

Without wishing to be too unfair, I think the bit that really got under his skin was the reference to how much work is put in to ensuring that civil servants who travel abroad get a better than fair shake.