Now this is interesting: Samantha Cameron as a new patron of a charity which provides respite services to people with disabilities – services that are rapidly being closed across the public sector, may I just add. The bloody cheek of it.

I mean – I wonder if we’ll see dear Sam posing outside the Your Choice Barnet respite residences which are getting rid of waking night staff to – so that failing company says – save money and stay competitive. Parents there are at the end of their tethers at the knowledge that their children – adults with learning difficulties – will be priced out of services that they rely on. “Winterbourne View,” they told us again and again. “We’re facing another Winterbourne View.”

Wonder if we’ll see the great Sam meeting and greeting parents in Lancashire who’ve been fighting the closures of respite centres for children with disabilities for god knows how long. Actually – I do know how long. It’s been at least two years, this time around (they had to fight to save those services several years before this latest attack).

Probably not.

The list of “corporate volunteers” at Sam’s charity makes compelling reading as well – it includes Unum, the Association of British Insurers and PriceWaterhouseCoopers – the very firm that Mark Hoban announced today would “provide independent advice” (god knows at what cost) as part of his shakeup (right) of “quality assurance processes across all its health and disability assessments.” And oh yeah (update 23 July) – I forgot to mention that Mark Hoban used to work for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, so maybe the “independent advice” that PwC gives on disability assessments will be somewhat on the matey side. This is what I like to describe as “we’ll get our private sector mates in to assess the crap caused by our other private sector mates who can continue to cause crap for our other private sector mates to assess.”

Certainly a small world we have here. We do keep seeing the same faces.

Here’s a list of prices for a stay at the charity. And yes, I’ve read the annual review which talks about helping some people in financial hardship. Wonder if that can/will extend to supporting people who are losing the Independent Living Fund money which has paid for the extra carer hours they need to live independent lives.