Demerge, remerge....

It's no surprise really that there are now questions being asked of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about ow much it is going to cost for them to merge the former Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform together.

As one would expect the Government is not answering the question, or even acknowledging what they think the estimate will be, instead just saying that the cost "will be published as a note to the Annual Report and Accounts in 2010".

Typical really, but worth remembering that when Brown came to power he scrapped the Department for Trade and Industry and created the split up into DIUS and BERR. Now he's remerged them together two years later. So here's a question worth asking.

Is it not an admission of departmental and organisational failure to have split up one organisation into two then remerged it again later with a new name?

Brown loves to bang on about how spending constraint in back office functions will be necessary, yet here we have evidence of an absolute waste of money over a two year period. Thank God he's not go time to split it up again before he loses office.