Out in force

I've just seen the most amazing thing on the BBC News channel: five (count 'em) government ministers standing outside No. 10, telling us what is being done to resolve the air travel crisis.

Five ministers. That's Milords Mandelson, Adonis and West, and the humbler David Miliband and Tessa Jowell. Why five? Well, there are obviously so many aspects to this crisis that we needed to see personal responses from each minister concerned. And they took plenty of opportunity to tell us how vastly experienced they all were in their respective areas, too, and how seriously they took the threat to the wellbeing of ordinary people. And how they were working constantly in the interests of the travelling public. I suppose they felt that, with the election called and government effectively suspended for the duration, we hadn't seen enough of them recently and needed reassurance. Nothing to do with bolstering their credentials with an election coming up, of course. Nothing to do with a bit of crisis publicity that the opposition can't possibly use.

But why five ministers? Surely, all it needed was one senior politician to make a comprehensive statement to the press, covering all of the relevant aspects of the problem. Someone with an overview - Gordon Brown, perhaps?

Yeah, maybe not.

Shame Jowell didn't get to speak, but then she is only a gurl, after all.