Mystery of John Prescott’s pens
WELL, this is very odd.
Between 2002 and 2006, John Prescott’s Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now deceased) spent £3,450 on 20,000 ballpoint pens with “Office of the Deputy Prime Minister” written on them.
The answer came from Meg Munn, the Communities Minister, in response to a written question from Greg Hands, the Conservative MP.
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But wait. That’s not the odd part. Or, at least, it’s not the oddest part. In response to a written question from Caroline Spelman, MP, Munn has also admitted that, in the past year alone, said pens cost ODPM £1,900. Which means, unless our maths is very much out, that they got through 11,014 of these pens (and they must have had others) in a single year.
Are these unusually weak pens, we ask a spokesman for what used to be Prescott’s department? Do they run out particularly quickly? “I’ve never seen one,” says the spokesman.
This, too, is odd. Isn’t it?