A few months ago, I told the story of how the EU's biofuels policy was put in place through the activities of a "policy entrepreneur" - a senior bureaucrat with producer interests at heart.
Today, the Register carries the story of how UK bureaucrats in the Intellectual Property Office seem to be up to something similar, trying to rework IP law in favour of the Googles of this world.
We also heard evidence of bureaucrats taking an activist role, possibly misleading their ministers.
“Some evidence was not fed through to ministers,” said Andrew Yeates of the Educational Recording Agency.
And the consultation also heard that IPO bureaucrats had been attempting to change international policy before proposals had been discussed, let alone decided, in the UK. This state-within-a-state had its own very active Foreign Office, it seems.