The Downing Street Gift Shop saga comes to an end....

The saga is over. Almost 10 months ago I sent a Freedom of Information request to Downing Street about its gift shop. I asked what products were on sale and how many of each product they sold. At first they just gave me a list of products and ignored the question about sales figures, but, today, finally, they've told me how many of each product they have sold in the last twelve months.

I praise them for being fast under their FoI obligations and responding to a request in only 280 or so days longer than is required by law. A most impressive performance of which I doubt the sudden quick responses have anything to with Newsnight taking the piss out of them.

Mugs are popular (313 sold in a year). The expensive Number 10 door model is not (grand total of 2 - was one for Gordon?). Oddly, they managed to sell 87 branded blank cards at 40p each. Presumably this was when post-it notes ran out. The lack of wallet sales has already been discussed and they were obviously embarassed by it seeing as they tried to avoid answering on the subject in Parliament in June.

I'd love to see a Downing Street teddy bear though. Anyone got a picture of one they'd like to send me?

Time to think about some more meaningful FoI research now. Probably on the massive waste of money they spend on websites that nobody bothers looking at.