27 kills and counting, the F.O.’s mouser bureau-cats just love boasting about
THEY are not renowned for letting mere voters know what they’re up to. But when it comes to boasting about their prized mouser, it seems officials at the Foreign Office can hardly shut up.
When a Freedom of Information request was made about the abilities of Palmerston, the department’s cat, it responded with an outpouring of details.
It said that while it does not keep accurate figures for the number of mice caught, the office of permanent under-secretary Sir Simon McDonald had recorded 27 ‘reported sightings’ of Palmerston in action since his arrival in April last year. ‘This figure is likely to be much higher as these are only reported sightings,’ the statement added. As a bonus, it also revealed that Palmerston is ‘usually’ fed Whiskas, although much of his food is donated, so he gets a variety of brands.
The gushing response was in stark contrast to the often taciturn – to put it diplomatically – response that the FO gives to requests for information on weightier issues.
For example, so determined was it to keep a lid on matters relating to the Iraq war that it even went to court in 2012 to stop the release of details of conversations that took place between Tony Blair and George W Bush days before the invasion in 2003. Yesterday, however, the FO was revelling in being transparent about its cat, named after former foreign secretary and two-time prime minister Viscount Palmerston when he was adopted from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
And the FO probably didn’t mind the fact that Palmerston’s achievements dwarf those of No 10’s laidback moggie, Larry, who was once photographed playing with a mouse before letting it escape.
But freedom of information only goes so far. It is not known how Downing Street’s three other cats – Evie and Ossie at the Cabinet Office and Gladstone at No 11 – fare in the Westminster mouse-catching league.