Shocked at the case of the torpedoed e-commerce minister, Sneak gave the DTI (or is it the DPEI? Sneak is so confused) a bell to see if it could shed light on the mystery.
"Is it not true that focus on e-commerce will be diluted by handing responsibility to the already rather busy minister for industry and the regions, Alun Michael?" Sneak asked.
"Not at all," a spokeswoman replied, testily. "E-commerce didn't have a separate minister before. Mike O'Brien [the last e-commerce minister, who lasted eight months] was also minister for energy and had responsibility for areas like nuclear power and renewable energy as well."
Roughly translated: commitment to e-commerce won't change as there really wasn't much in the first place.
"Nothing has changed in the e-commerce brief," added the mouthpiece, without the slightest hint of irony. "It just fits better in the new portfolio."
Sneak hung up a bit disoriented by this Kafka-esque logic, but reassured that while the DTI's name may have unexpectedly changed twice inside a week, its commitment to e-commerce remains as predictable as ever.

16 May 2005