Welcome to the all new Bishop Hill blog.

Over on the right you'll see a link to a project I've called Leviathan. The idea is to document the full scope of Government in the UK by means of a sort of a biography of each department. As I go along I hope to document what they've all been getting up to and what they've been wasting all our money on. I'll also pass on any gossip I can find. I will probably pinch all the best stuff from people like Wat Tyler.

Now the scope of the project is huge. In fact I'm pretty sure it's too big for me and I'll probably get bored of it, but there's no harm in trying. And it could be fun, especially if my first department is anything to go by.

It's the story of how a "special friend" of Peter Mandelson's called James got appointed to a committee. The committee created a new department, and appointed James to head it up. On a salary of £150,000 a year.