Was it an innocent mistake or a Freudian slip? Alistair Darling last night changed the name of a key government department, wiping skills off the map in one fell swoop by introducting John Denham as the head of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Science.
Without realising his mistake, the secretary of state for eyebrow growth and bank runs - sorry, chancellor - proceeded to implore business leaders to invest in the science - sorry, skills - of their workforces.
In fact, it's possible he deliberately threw in the mistake at the annual EEF manufacturers' dinner to make sure people knew he was actually speaking rather than miming along to a pre-recorded speech we've all heard a million times before. Globalisation... blah blah... new challenges... the importance of moving up the value change... skills skills science.
Greeted with ironic cheers and bemused laughter when he mentioned that recent changes to the capital gains tax regime were "not universally popular", he didn't even flinch, just ploughed on about European competitiveness and how important bunsen burners and lab coats are in the modern workplace. I've got it wrong again haven't I?
As I drifted off and waited for my main course to arrive - the lamb was superb - I started wondering who in the current government would provide any sort of personality to an after-dinner (or as seems to be the modern trend, mid-dinner) speech. Darling was talking a long time, and I couldn't think of an answer.
Gone are the Prescotts, the Blairs and even the Widdecombes. In are a bunch of clones. Has Gordon Brown created a government in his own dour image?
