New Best Friend

 

Last night I met Tony O'Donnell.

It was a riot of rushed words, shared memories of mutual friends plus gratitude from me for Anthony's playing of me at Donmar Warehouse Theatre. He wore a wig for the show which he sadly dumped for the photograph. Otherwise the resemblance  was convincing.

It was a strange thrill to watch a greatly gifted actor brilliantly  reproducing my voice, mannerisms and questions. This is a unique theatrical event because the libretto from the musical is verbatim MP speak. The musical is known as COMMITTEE. The long title is the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee takes oral evidence on Whitehall's relationship with Kids Company. It was no ordinary Select Committee meeting. It was explosive exchange between those who ran Kids Company and a group of MPs who were aghast at the our perception of the waste and misuse of £millions of public money.

Following the show Anthony joined me in singing our old school song-Green and Gold. We were both at St Illtyd's College Cardiff. I was there is the late forties Anthony in the early sixties but we share many friends-especially from the Splott area of Cardiff. We will have another get together to catch up on many events.

 

I e-mailed the Donmar today.

Many thanks.

 

We all had a wonderful time. All my staff are very knowledgable about Kids Company. The universal view was that the show fairly presented the strengths and weaknesses on  both sides in a very entertaining way. The musical was an unforgettable joy.  Meeting Anthony and singing our old school song was an unexpected pleasure. We share a great deal in our pasts and friends.

 

Watching someone play me on  a stage was not something I have ever expected. Anthony did a great job and the quotations selected were the best. As a committee I believe we did our job in exposing the weaknesses in Kids Company that had been previously disregarded. That came through. We still have unfinished business in exposing the waste and damage of the Big Society Stunt. 

 

All members of the cast were instantly convincing and deserve great credit for a unique musical that merits a bigger audience.

 

A marvellous inspired idea-brilliantly executed.'

 

 

Post Script.

 

 

COMMITTEE got a great deal right-but not everything.

 

It's a mistake  to portray a select committee as a united force hellbent of getting their Chairperson on the six oclock news. But they want to get the subjects on their report exposed on the six o'clock news. PACAC were divided between the Chair and two Committee members who were formerly on Cameron's cabinet. All three were fierce defenders of the Big Society.  Kate Howey and I who wanted to nail the extravagance and waste of Cameron's stunt.

 

Many audience members at the Donmar thought the story was unfinished. It still is. It's a misunderstanding to believe that select committee members should be impartial. We are seeking out the truth. In this case a very persuasive pair of witnesses had to be ruthlessly challenged. It is part of our job to expose their skilled but vacuous evasions. The pair had convinced three PMs (and their wives) to part with vast amounts of public money that could have been beneficially spent elsewhere. The job of the select committee member is to be partizan on the side of side of truth and transparency. 

Great to hear last month that the Kids Company Trustees are being brought to book for their failures to do their work in ensuring financial viability to this inefficient charity.

They survived only because of political patronage run by the Poster Girl of the Big Society. I have long argued that the Public Administration Select Committee has not finished its task on this.   As yet there has been no penalties for the two ministers who handed over £3 million of taxpayers' money to Kids Company a few days before they collapsed. That was in defiance of published Civil Service advice. The Prime Minister should have reported them to the the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests who supervises Ministers' Conduct. It's a long story but it did not happen. One of the witnesses should have been summoned to appear again at the committee for possible misleading statements. It was not done. The committee conclusions on the role of the Trustees is below.

"Primary responsibility for Kids Company’s collapse rests with the charity’s Trustees. Whether these allegations prove true or malicious, if the Trustees had not allowed the charity’s weak financial position to persist for so long, Kids Company would not have been so vulnerable to the impact of the allegations. e Board failed to protect the interests of the charity and its beneficiaries, despite its statutory responsibility to do so. Trustees repeatedly ignored auditors’ clear warnings about Kids Company’s precarious finances. is negligent financial management rendered the charity incapable of surviving any variance in its funding stream; when allegations of sexual misconduct emerged in July 2015 and threatened to impede fundraising, the charity was obliged to close immediately.