Any aspiring Pinocchio need look no further than the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) for his calling. It was announced this week that the cash-strapped force spent over £100,000 on story-telling.

According to the Tameside Advertiser, as part of a training session GMP chiefs hired consultants who encouraged senior officers to share tales of successful operations with the rest of the group. At the heart of this management group bonding was the purpose of designing a ´business strategy´.

However it is rumoured that many officers were less than impressed by the project, with the Police Federation spokesman labelling GMP ´the Ministry for Silly Ideas´.

The news comes comes close on the heels of the force announcing that it intends to axe 300 police posts in order to cut costs.

What Munchausenesque  tales of swashbuckling encounters with devious criminals were heard we can only guess at. Not that MULE would ever suspect the pigs of telling porkies…