Most of the reports I have seen or heard about the secrets on a train mention that the documents were inside an orange cardboard folder. This minor detail seems to hold quite a wide fascination
Colour-coded files are a very useful part of good administration
Take that (now sadly devalued) institution, the Written Parliamentary Question
IMD* there was a strict 2-day deadline for answer. The papers for each question were held in distinctive folders – say purple with a green & white flag, departments varied. Immediately recognisable by everybody, from the Minister who found them in his red box at night to the messenger who ferried them around the office
Clearly identifiable at 100 paces, the messenger was clearly on an urgent mission. To use the modern jargon, there was ownership. Good human psychology. Everybody had a sense of their own importance in the delivery of good government
Cardboard folders & paper seem quaint & ridiculously old fashioned now. I expect a lot of the work is done by (secure?) intranet. I wonder what clever techniques they have for flagging priority & giving ownership?
Old fashioned cardboard can still provide one very effective form of security: cannot be penetrated by the photographer’s zoom lens
And I wonder what the archivists & conservators had to say about the plastic folders which were hurriedly adopted by Ministers after that recent embarrassment?
Still, perhaps New Labour will be pleased to see their record rot & crumble from the effects of humidity
* In My Day
