Brown's St Helena moment
James Forsyth 11:19am
Martin Kettle’s column this morning contains an absolutely astonishing example of how much of a control freak Brown is:
“Four years ago, ministers decided that Britain's South Atlantic island possession of St Helena needed to have an airport. If planes could land on the tiny island, more than 1,200 miles from the nearest continent, its economic and demographic decline could perhaps be turned around. Plans began to be made. The airport was scheduled to open in 2010.Earlier this year, the Foreign Office finally asked the Department for International Development to sign off on the airport. The file went up to the secretary of state, Douglas Alexander. But instead of giving the go-ahead himself, Alexander was required to pass the decision up to Downing Street. Brown insisted on reading all the papers in the St Helena file and afterwards asked personally to see all the tender documents, in case they did not give value for money. I am told the papers remain in Downing Street and that no final decision has yet been taken.”
When you read this it does bring home to you just how temperamentally unsuited to the premiership Brown is. Perhaps the remarkable thing is that this government isn’t even more dysfunctional than it is.
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Comments
richardj
September 26th, 2008 11:41amProbably learning to tie the new white and black ties.
Austin Barry
September 26th, 2008 11:55amI'm reminded of Hitler's micromanagement of military strategy during his last days in the bunker. But then he was quite ma...oh, oh dear.
Labour Member
September 26th, 2008 12:04pmWell, all that is required is for the relevant minister to insist it goes to cabinet committee and then the full cabinet. Instead of moaning about how awful Brown is they should be doing something about it.
Why did/does Brown hate Ruth Kelly/ John hutton/ Alan Milburn - because they all had the guts to take him on.
Douglas Alexander plainly does not.
GS London
September 26th, 2008 12:05pmI think statistics dictate that the government isn't more unsuitable: sooner or later, someone in Labour must do something of use, even if it's by mistake.
GeoffH
September 26th, 2008 12:18pmAstonishing but predictable.
It's no longer the man in Whitehall that knows best but the man in No 10.
This kind of control freakery is what is truly in Labour's DNA, not fairness.
mac
September 26th, 2008 12:57pm" . . . in case they did not give value for money".
Ha, ha, ha. Brown, the great economic sage, would know of course, drawing on his own experience of selling gold, all his PFIs, government contracts with British Aerospace or any IT company you care name, "investing" in the social fabric, "saving" Northern Crock etc etc. Whenever it's written, the definitive political biography of Brown will be simply too embarrassing for any of his family to read.
mitch
September 26th, 2008 3:21pmIts in his dithering tray pending some indecision.
JohnAnt
September 26th, 2008 4:21pmYes, he hasn't quite caught the spirit of this delegating thingy yet, has he.
But there's still time - he's only in his late 50s. Probably got a good year or two before Parkinson's and Alzheimer's set in.
emil
September 26th, 2008 5:16pmQuite interesting that the BBC keep repeating the Obama quote about McCain and the man at the top not needing to personally look after everything and not seeing the irony that re their hero, and leader, the great Gordon
Forlornehope
September 26th, 2008 6:12pmI had a boss like that once. After one particularly stupid decision he summed up by saying that he didn't know anything about it but he was taking the decision anyway. It ended up costing us three times the alternative, taking twice as long and it didn't work anyway!
Good to know that we are being ruled by one of the same breed!
TGF UKIP
September 26th, 2008 7:52pmIt also brings home what a slavering Brown nose Alexander is.
David Lindsay
September 27th, 2008 12:38pmThanks for this - been in hospital the last couple of days, so missed it.
I was born in Saint Helena, and my mother's family is entirely Saint Helenian.
My grandmother was for some years a member of the Legislative Council, and one of my uncles is one of the two captains of the ship that goes between there, here and Cape Town. He supports the airport, though - it is indisputably the right way forward.