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A good day ...   6 June 2009

... to bury bad news. As I was driving to Creuse to welcome my mate to France I heard a snippet of news on the radio: Scotland Yard thinks it is unlikely that any MPs will be prosecuted over the recent expenses scandals. How convenient that this statement should be issued in the midst of the present political drama, and therefore be so massively under-reported.

As for Gordon Brown's travail - will the plotters oust him on Monday after the results of the European elections are published? - well, I doubt it. The current members of the House of Commons do not have a record of courage and honour - quite the reverse, the have frequently acted like a bunch of lilly-livered wimps.

Now, their vertebral inadequacy means that they need a 'leader', a 'heavywieght' to step forward from the cabinet. The problem is that the cabinet is stuffed with people of the same ilk as themselves - except they mostly have a better history of self-serving media presentation.

There are at least two conditions under which a cabinet minister might stand down: principle, as when Michael Heseltine stormed out of Thatcher's cabinet, or ambition, as when the ex-whip John Major replaced Thatcher as Prime Minister.

The current crop of cabinet ministers have no principles - many of them are known to dislike and disagree with Brown yet would not dream of resigning because of it. And none of them wants the poisoned chalice of leadership. They know they will get trounced at the next general election and fear that a change of leadership might push the long-suffering British public too far and lead to an immediate ellection.

Talking of which - the great British public seem to have swung from Labour to Tory in this weeks local council elections - when will they ever learn? It looks like they have the political class they deserve!


Posted by Nicholas Moore    12:15:55 pm
1  Comments for this post (now closed)
      venika  commented...

Interesting - you mention at least two conditions under which a cabinet minister might stand down - principle or ambition. Reflecting on the second and in the context of 'someone' replacing Brown, I can think of a further condition. 

I have served long enough in central government to appreciate that ministers are sometimes 'allowed' to remain or indeed nudged into position to serve some other purpose or interests. In this instance it might suit some to leave the incumbent in place. For those who might think this sounds like anothe conspiracy theory - it isnt!  In my old job I when I questioned something, I was oftern simply told, 'this is the way things are done around here!'

Governments are generally guided by old linear, hierarchical models, and do not appreciate that real life is not like that. The continuing radical changes in policy will follow a rhizomic pattern, resulting in nonlinear, nonhierarchical alterations. Already many of these changes exhibited now have emerged as a cnsequence of not understaning these mdels. There are many examples but one flagged up recently by the  completely senseless murders of the two French students comes to mind. The bringing together of the Probation & Prison Serivice as the whim of a minister was a total disaster and has led to the almost complete destruction of two very good traditional services in their own right. It has also placed excellent staff under enormous pressure and led to the resignation of some very capable people like David Scott, ex Chief Probation Officer of the London Probation Service. 


   
Posted at 1:17:01 pm on 6 June 2009           
     



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