Taking out the trash: here is the bad news the Tories tried to bury | Polly Toynbee

Parliament's last day is always one for sneaky, underhand decisions. This year, the government has outdone itself

They have finally gone away. The prime minister tried to get rid of parliament a few days early, but couldn't muster the votes. There was so much bad news to bury, it would have been easier to scuttle off sooner: nothing is good news for her these days, so scores of written ministerial statements slipped out in the last couple of days, in the hope that no one would notice.

It's a tradition - a bad one - used by all governments called "take out the trash day", the last day of the session, with no time for MPs to summon ministers to explain highly controversial decisions. They hope to duck under the radar, or that the opposition will forget in the long six-week break.