What was I doing reading the News Of The World? Last night my colleague, sitting next to me in the Newcastle mess room, finished reading his Andy McNab book, dipped into his bag, and pulled out the first Twilight book.
I quickly grabbed the discarded NoTW to try and hide us both from the shame and embarrassment.
But anyway, back to the news it actually contained: the government has scrapped the proposed Green Investment Bank.
This was actually one of those proposals which appeared in every party's manifesto during the recent election campaign. The idea was that funds would be available to invest in renewable technologies and energy schemes around the country. And it was a good idea.
The UK government has now decided to scrap the bank and use the money for bringing down the deficit instead. The uncharitable might even suggest that they'll use the money to bring down the tax bills of their friends instead.
We've now had almost two months of short-sighted cuts after short-sighted cuts after short-sighted cuts.
I can't remember who said it on Question Time (it may even have been Caroline Lucas a couple of weeks ago), that although the cuts themselves are galling, it's the glee with which the government is doing it that really sticks in the throat.
During the actual election campaign, an economist said that whichever party got into power this year would be so unpopular that they would find themselves out of power for a generation afterwards. We can only hope, but how much damage is the coalition going to do in the meantime?
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