Ridley gets his facts wrong
Page 38
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THERE is a special skill in speech writing for Government Ministers. What they say must be written in a manner that fits the Minister concerned.
One of recent memory had a speech impediment that ruled out writing anything which he might pronounce as "wuwal wailways"; some are better at telling jokes than others.
But Nicholas Ridley displayed another form of eccentric speech at last week's Bus and Coach Council dinner. His speech writer included a fundamental factual error about the Transport Bill, and Mr Ridley did nothing to correct it.
While the Government clearly believes that privatisation of the National Bus Company is something for the distant future, if at all, Mr Ridley said that NBC "will have organised and privatised its subsidiaries," by October next year.
I hear that NBC executives came close to choking on their vol-au-vents when that little bombshell went off.