<b><b>Government announcements should not be taken at face value, argues Robert Jones. Particularly the recent housing statement which will lead to further delays</b></b><br><b>Seasoned observers of this government, and after five years there are many such creatures, cannot help but notice a number of hallmarks of their way of making public announcements. First, anything to do with public spending is announced more than once, allowing the gullible journalist to form the impression that each announcement represents &amp;“new&amp;” money, as opposed to repackaging existing programmes. Second, we have flavour of the month initiatives, designed to give the impression that the government is listening to whatever public concern is top of the pops with the focus groups. Many of these initiatives are later quietly abandoned when something else takes priority in the public mind, or when reaction to them exceeds favourable responses. Third, when any such initiative is announced, not even a cursory attempt is made to tie in such policy with any other relevant government policies.</b><br><b><b>rushed announcement</b></b><br> A recent example of the big government announcement relates to air traffic. Some bright spark deep in the heart of the &amp;“Department of Spin and News Management&amp;” noticed that travellers were starting to whinge about …