I received an amusing email from Blighty life friend, Jane. She’s a policy manager in health and social care and is involved in making difficult decisions about how to deal with the biggest crisis in the public purse since Good Queen Bess inherited an empty treasury from Bloody Mary. Last year I read in The Times that 75% of the great British public believed that the fiscal deficit could be resolved by efficiency savings alone. Slashing the Town Hall biscuit budget was never going to do the trick.

Jane wrote:

“Have basically been working like some sort of cart horse – on spending cuts, cuts, cuts – so many people have left (some running out of the door with big packages) the remaining chumps have to make do with the leftovers. Work all rather unpleasant – have been involved with reducing our social care eligibility – just finished work on the consultation (why the f**** hell do we have to ask people “Do you mind awfully if we remove your social care?”) Still “we are all in this together”, “the vulnerable won’t suffer”, “how can I step down I am not a leader I have no position” (or is that Gaddafi?) and the Big Society is no doubt just saddling up and will be riding to the rescue.

Some of the responses we have had from the true bluers made me laugh – from the classic “I didn’t vote Conservative for this!” to suggesting (from the mad UKIP fringe) that we could make the £80m savings by stopping our twinning arrangements with European cities (how much do they think we spend on charming spotty 14 year olds from Ghent?) Today we had the protests and the petition – all very chaotic – how is a girl meant to navigate round the wheelchairs and sticks with a grande latte answering a blackberry for chrissake?!

I’ve got a stinking cold and this really cheered me up!