The journalists who are meant to be covering British politics have been shown up over the past month as being almost as useless as those in the dance music press. They were hesitant to cover the Downing Street parties at first and only forced to do so due to a public outcry – due to at least one tabloid newspaper holding its own Christmas party at a time when they were banned.

Sacha Lord is a man who gets a lot of stick on this blog – and I firmly believe it’s merited – but I had to praise him to the hilt last month for his decision to submit a Freedom of Information request to the government to see just how many of these parties took place. With this act, he managed what every political journalist in Britain failed abysmally to do.

Speaking to digital magazine About Manchester, Lord said he was meant to receive a reply by Friday 14th January. And indeed he did – on the very last hour of the business day… to tell him his request was being rejected on the grounds it would cost more than £600 for the government to carry out.

In other words, they’ve decided to respond in much the same way anyone else involved has done – by resorting to delaying tactics and obfuscation. Naturally, the line hasn’t worked, but it isn’t stopping them from pursuing this failed strategy to its pathetic end.

Lord says he’s willing to pay the £600 himself to see the answer – although it’s unclear whether this something which is even possible under this system. So for the moment, it looks like this blog is joining the legions of politicians currently waiting impatiently for Sue Gray to finish her report…