Rufus had something of a shock the other day.

There he was, idly surfing through the HMRC website to see if they had lost anything else that they might need his help finding — no news yet by the way on his suggestion that everything be smeared with corned beef, but there's just no telling some people — when his eye was caught by a news release on dogs working for HMRC.

OK, the idea of a bit of professional subcontracting for their IT department (through Rufus Ltd and definitely not as an employee, naturally) is one thing, but full-time employment?

His legswent wobbly at the very thought; He had to go and have a little lie down on his duvet just to get over it.

He then went on to read further and felt that the language used in 'Ten things you didn't know about HMRC detection dogs' was rather demeaning for a start.

To acknowledge their success in protecting the public from illegal drugs is one thing, but he thought that to then describe them in this context as 'one of the most successful tools' must be like describing men and women as 'human resources'.

Apparently dogs have been doing this work for thirty years and, in addition to drugs, have found other illegal imports from alligators to scorpions; pretty much everything in fact other than missing computer disks.

On the subject of HMRC and dogs, Rufus and I took a few minutes to update ourselves on the level of dog ownership in the Treasury Team. Not good news I'm afraid. Unless we are mistaken, it seems that one non dog-owning minister has been replaced by two!

The previous Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Andy (no dog) Burnham, has been replaced by Yvette Cooper. Her PA would not disclose her dog-owning status; I can therefore only suspect the worst.

However, the most surprising news is that Liam Byrne, who joins the Treasury team as 'Minister of State with responsibility for revenue protection at the border' (a snappy title) does not own a dog — and surely he must be the chap in charge of them.

Rufus says that if any are retiring soon he might like to think about offering one a home.

So, a somewhat depressing outlook then, but you wouldn't be surprised. Just look at the actions of the Treasury over the last few months and tell me that someone with a dog — or a dog — wouldn't have done better.

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