Here's what happened to *that* podium!

This is a retropost. Written in January 2023 but published long after I left the Civil Service.

One of the weird things about working in Westminster is how terrifyingly normal it becomes to work in grand old buildings, stuffed with grand old artworks, and staffed with grand old politicians. You turn a corner and there's a bit of Henry VIII's tennis court. There's a Tracy Emin hanging on the wall. That's the table where that peace treaty was signed. For goodness sake - don't sit on that chair!

Every time you open a cupboard door, you're confronted with a little bit of history.

While working in one building (I'm far too modest to say which) I was sent to grab a few extra chairs from a store-room. Oh, it is all glamour, let me tell you!

In amongst all the trestle-tables, old coffee urns, and discarded filing cabinets, was this:

Zoinks! The infamous Jenga Podium for erstwhile PM Truss.

Naturally, the only thing to do when you meet a celebrity is snap a selfie with them 😆

I've scrubbed the EXIF metadata so as not to reveal its top secret location.

This post is a little silly, but contains a serious message. Everything is kept. Short of deliberate destruction, every decision - good or bad - is recorded somewhere. Sure, the Post-It Notes might fall off, and the Zoom call wasn't recorded, but the consequences of those decisions linger on.

It's all there. Just waiting for an eager - or lost - Civil Servant to literally open the door.