Shadow climate change and Jim Fitzpatrick MP

A bit of a strange one here, from the Department for Transport website (you may have to click on the image to see a larger version):

Click on the image to see a larger version
Why does Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, have responsibility for "shadow climate change"? As a Labour MP he is a member of the government, not the shadow government.

Is this just a daft mistake, or am I missing something? Perhaps it is Fitzpatrick's responsibility to keep tabs on the shadow climate change secretary, Greg Clark.

Whatever, there's definitely something shadowy going on.

7 comments:

Stan said...

It is a shade peculiar.

JD (The Engine Room) said...

I'm in the dark!

Ellen Kozisek said...

I wonder if shadow could be a verb, in the sense of following and watching.

JD (The Engine Room) said...

Yes, and I suppose that saying Fitzpatrick had responsibility for climate change (without the 'shadow') would make it sound like he was causing it to happen.

The Ridger, FCD said...

I'll bet it's meant to be a verb (though why not say "follow"?) and someone changed it from an -ing form thinking it had to be a noun phrase to match the other bullets.

Or else... I don't know.

JD (The Engine Room) said...

I would probably have opted for 'track' or 'monitor' rather than 'follow' or (ugh) 'shadow'.

TootsNYC said...

I love the concept of the shadow government. It sounds so incredibly sinister!

But since the term "shadow government" has a specific meaning, using it as a verb here was confusing.

I like The Ridger's idea-that it was originally "shadowing" and either someone was trying to be parallel or--more likely, to my way of thinking--they knew of the term "shadow secretary of defense" and stuff, and assumed that was what was meant.