Thank you for your letter of 9 August.

My recent excursion up the garden path with your colleague, Mrs Leakey, suggests it might not be sensible to question the basis of your apparent assertion that chalk is fully consistent with cheese. But I can't help feeling I've missed something.

If I read you right, you are saying that members of the CSM are not covered by the Code on Access to Information but are covered by their own Code which is "fully consistent" with the Cabinet Office Model Code which, in turn, requires them to ensure that the Code on Access to Information is upheld.

It is not immediately obvious to me how the CSM can both be exempt from the Code on Access and "ensure that the Code … is adhered to". What's "fully consistent" about that? The thought that this might seem unremarkable to Mr Colmans is making me feel very nervous indeed.