THE Government has not exactly covered itself in glory to date over the recall to custody of killer Jon Venables.

Its handling of the affair has been ham-fisted from the start, with the lack of communication within Whitehall resembling one of the more inspired episodes of The Thick of It, in its shambling ineptitude.

This reached new heights yesterday when Justice Minister Jack Straw managed to get the name of James Bulger’s mother wrong, not once, but twice, in the space of a few hours.

As anyone who has read a newspaper in the last 17 years should know, James’s mother, Denise, was divorced from his father, Ralph, and married new partner Stuart Fergus years ago.

Yet Mr Straw managed to call her Mrs Bulger in a radio interview, before referring to her as Mrs Ferguson on the floor of the Commons. Impressive.

It is clear that the Government wanted to tell us absolutely nothing aboutVenables, until they discovered that a newspaper was aware of the issue.

Since then, they have hidden behind the contrived excuse of prejudice to avoid giving out any but the most basic information.

The media have been ahead of them at every turn, and they have been forced with every passing day to come closer to what legitimate public concern demands: a clear statement of the nature of the wrongdoing of which Venables stands accused.

It takes little imagination to work out how this could be done without prejudicing any potential trial or revealing his new identity.

Which makes you wonder, what are they really trying to hide?