Mr 50%

Don't you admire a Minister who will happily sacrifice half of his department? The Guardian reports:

Up to one in two of the staff at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are to be made redundant as part of the cuts programme submitted to the Treasury by the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

Hunt has also proposed moving out of the well-appointed departmental headquarters in Cockspur Street, just off Trafalgar Square, with the remaining staff finding room in a different, existing departmental building.

The Treasury asks for 40% reduction illustrations; Hunt opts for 50%, on the spurious grounds that the pain he intends to inflict on the arts and culture establishment needs to be shared by his staff. There is a word for a man like that and it's not Jeremy.