David Maddox: Whitehall whitewash

If you can't beat them and joining them is even worse then the only other option is to pretend they do not exist.

This seems to have been the tactic adopted by the UK Labour government in dealing with those "pesky Nats running Scotland."

Having launched the realhelpnow.gov.uk website the UK government got its fingers slightly burnt when it realised (after the SNP pointed it out) that the real help highlighted in Scotland such as the council tax freeze was the responsibility of the SNP administration in Holyrood rather than Labour one in Westminster.

But rather than merely taking an ostrich like head in the sand view of pretending the SNP do not exist the cabinet office went a step further and actually whitewashed the Scottish Government out of existence on the website. Now the Scotland link only takes visitors to a three-week old press release from the the Scottish Office.

Maybe, as the picture (right) suggests, Gordon Brown has taken some tips from his predecessor, although, by the looks of it, Tony Blair seemed to be more interested in painting things Tory blue rather than whitewash.