relative timing

Some local news, of relevance to the minister for empowering communities:

HAZEL Blears has spoken of her shock after a housing campaigner killed himself after emailing a suicide note to a government department which sent him a £3,000 bill.

As reported in the M.E.N. Neil Hill, 57, had received a demand to cover legal fees from Treasury solicitors acting on behalf of Ms Blears - the Communities and Local Government Secretary and Salford MP.

Mr Hill, from Irlam, had lost a case he brought on behalf of hundreds of council tenants who faced rent rises.

Within an hour of the case being held at Salford County Court he had received a bill from the government.

He sent an email to a Treasury solicitor saying: "By the time you receive this I will be dead, having committed suicide. I hope you feel very proud of yourselves…

… Mr Hill was discovered hanged in his flat by police, after they were alerted by government officers three days after the suicide note was sent.

My emphases. More background here. Short version: Council encourage tenants to transfer to private sector landlord on rosy prospectus. Tenants comply, Blears signs of on deal in official capacity. New landlord slaps rent increase on everyone. Angry local campaigner makes possibly ill-advised attempt to link Blears personally with the case. Government comes down on campaigner like proverbial ton of bricks. Campaigner swings gently for several days before government bothers to alert police to his suicide note. It could, I suppose, have been sent on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend though if that had been the case you would expect the point to have been made publicly.

Hazel, meanwhile, makes herself scarce.

Ms Blears denied that her cancelling of an appointment in Salford yesterday in which she was to attend the launch of affordable housing scheme was connected to Mr Hill's death. "That is not true. I had other things to do. I have been out and about talking about Metrolink issues."