A blow-out with the bailout

A blow-out with the bailout

IS City Spy alone in finding something vaguely nauseous about the accounts of the great “Balti bailout”? No sooner was the bank rescue plan launched than the Government spin machine flicked into action.
The deal was thrashed out, apparently, over a curry takeaway ordered by Alistair Darling for his officials and advisers from Gandhi's in Kennington. The Chancellor, we are told in The Guardian, “personally phoned to order £245 worth of rice, karahi lamb, tandoori chicken, vegetable curry and aloo gobi”.
Added The Independent: “Sitting in his office on the second floor of the Treasury, the Chancellor tucked into his tandoori chicken. But Government hospitality did not extend to the negotiators from eight banks and building societies sitting in a nearby room, who had to survive on Treasury tea and biscuits instead.” Ah, the humiliation of it all.