Mandy’s Da Bizz

The lack of a sufficient pool of potential cabinet ministers has obliged the Prime Minister  to wind up one Department of State –  Universities, Innovation and Skills – altogether, less than two years after it was formed. 

DIUS has now been subsumed into the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, headed by Peter Mandelson, whose new additional title – First Secretary of State and Lord President of the Council – underlines his important role as the principal supporting  buttress of the crumbling Prime Ministerial edifice.  The vaguely Ruritanian ring to the office somehow suits Mandelson far more than it did its previous occupant, John Prescott.  They should create a special uniform to go with it, preferably with ostrich feathers, epaulettes and lots of gold braid.

The new Department is to be called Business, Innovation and Skills, whose acronym, DBIS, is apparently pronounced “Da Bizz”.

This, I feel, is a retrograde step.  DBERR was pronounced “De Burgh”, which was touched with a certain elegance, reminiscent of Mr Collins’s patroness in Pride and Prejudice.

“Da Bizz”, on the other hand, sounds like a ministerial vehicle created especially  for Ali G.