A good day to bury bad news

So wedded is Gordon the Big Grin Engine to his PPPs and PFIs that piss-poor past performance is seldom an impediment to winning future work.

On 31st March this year the Transport Select Committee published its report into the Metronet shag-up.

It concluded by stating the bleedin' obvious:
20. The Government should bear the Metronet debacle in mind if and when its parent companies—Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, EDF Energy, and Thames Water—next come to bid for publicly-funded work. (Paragraph 95)

Unfortunately not bleedin' obvious enough for the Dullards who inhabit both Treasury and Daft.

For on the 8th May DafT announced that the preferred bidder for the PPP contract to widen the M25 had been awarded to Connect Plus.

Connect Plus is a consortium comprising Balfour Beatty (40%), Skanska (40%), Egis Projects SA (10%) and Atkins (10%).

As this plainly didn't show contempt enough for the Transport Select Committee some genius in Government decided to announce the decision on the very day that Gwyneth was being buried.

They must be very proud of themselves.