No shrinking violets

While Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, talks of introducing austerity measures in Whitehall and swingeing cuts in the number of civil servants, an advertisement has appeared for a new director of communications at the Department for Education and Skills.

The successful candidate will receive the handsome sum of £80,000 a year - "or more for an exceptional candidate". Presumably that includes danger money for having to advise the bruising Charles Clarke, Secretary of State for Education, on what to - and what not to - say?

It remains to be seen how many applicants will be willing to step forward from the ranks of university PR departments across the land.