Tea without Mr Balls

Well, apparently he is on holiday. So it was tea in his rather beautiful office without him, sadly.

The last time I was at the DCSF or DfES as it was in those days, was for a meeting with then Minister, Ivan Lewis. On that occasion (with my Unison hat on) I was kicked under the table by my national officer because apparently one is not supposed to interrupt a minister when s/he is speaking, I thought that only applied to the Queen? It clearly didn't apply vice versa since he wasn't kicked under the table by his adviser when he interrupted me!

Although I always remember speaking to his adviser at the end of the meeting. I had met her previously at an event in Warwick and must have made a bit of an impression. She said her heart was in her mouth when she saw me as she was convinced I would have questions for Ivan that he couldn't answer and he would ask her and she wouldn't be able to answer them either! But of course, I was, as ever, impeccably behaved. Actually I have to admit to having a bit of a soft spot for Ivan, he was always well regarded as a friend of the Youth Service and young people, although I guess Gordon Brown doesn't have much of a soft spot for him at the moment!