SHUT up and cut is the message to charities from local government chiefs, apparently.

Many organisations in the voluntary sector are on the receiving end of grant reductions from councils as the deficit reduction programme really begins to bite.

Now the Conservative chairman of the Local Government Association, Margaret Eaton, has told charities to stop whingeing about it and get on with cutting their own overheads and management costs.

Mrs Eaton’s organisation represents all local councils in the country, which spend over £100billion a year between them. Some of them are among the most bloated bureaucracies in the state sector.

You’ve got to hand it to Mrs Eaton. She’s certainly got chutzpah.

Definition: self assurance bordering on impudence. Audacity. Effrontery.

Yes, that just about covers it.

l Talking of putting your foot in it, Dorset MP Oliver Letwin – one of the thinkers in the government - has been at it again, lifting the lid on cabinet pessimism about the state of the economy as he sought to explain to a Commons committee how ministers are responding to slow growth and rising unemployment.

Ollie Leftwing, one of the most affable MPs you will ever come across, has a habit of going off message every now and then.

Ah, if only more of them were like him.