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Sunday 27 May 2012

Tuesday, 14th July 2009

Another goat goes

James Forsyth 7:35pm

News is breaking that the Health Minister Lord Darzi is leaving the government. By my count, that means Lord West is the ony one of Gordon's goats still in post.

Filed under: Gordon Brown (918 more articles) , Government (233 more articles) , Health (238 more articles) , Resignations (14 more articles) , UK politics (5408 more articles)

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West Morlander

July 14th, 2009 7:48pm Report this comment

Does that mean we've now got a government of no talent?

Boudicca

July 14th, 2009 8:08pm Report this comment

Maybe the goats have realised that they're being led by an ass.

patently

July 14th, 2009 8:28pm Report this comment

Leaving, presumably, a government of no talent whatsoever?

paul holdstock

July 14th, 2009 9:05pm Report this comment

ah, but which one will prove to be the sacrificial goat?

Ray

July 14th, 2009 9:26pm Report this comment

It's not just the 'goats'. Even the sheep (such as Jane Kennedy, John Hutton and James Purnell) have been slipping the fold lately.

Meanwhile, the sheepdog faces his demoralised flock and promises to mend his ways and not keep nipping at heels or setting his press-briefing wolves upon them.

Cardinal Richelieu's mole

July 14th, 2009 10:16pm Report this comment

So on Lord West's exit, it will become a Government of none of the talents then.

Sally Chatterjee

July 15th, 2009 7:16am Report this comment

From GOATS to GONE: Government Of No Experience. We end up with people like Andy Burnham running the NHS. This man has never had a proper job in his life, no managerial experience and no experience of medicine or health care.

Vulture

July 15th, 2009 9:04am Report this comment

Lord West? Doesn't he describe himself as a 'simple sailor'?Simpleton, more like - but he clearly believes in the old nautical adage that the Captain should be the last on the bridge as the ship goes down.

David Bouvier

July 15th, 2009 9:11am Report this comment

I had understood that he was pissed off early on - they had promised him a serious shot at NHS reform and then spun his first interim report to solve a PR problem a couple of months later.

But he felt obliged to carry on to push through what he could, rather than flounce out.

Chris lancashire

July 15th, 2009 9:15am Report this comment

They have all realised (apart from West) that they were brought in for window dressing - not to actually do anything.

The Huntsman

July 15th, 2009 9:39am Report this comment

@9:26 Ray

The image of the sheepdog is a good one. I am reminded of Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd in which Gabriel Oak's sheepdog drives his flock over a cliff in the night.

Oak's response is to shoot the dog.

In only a few months we shall have a chance to watch McLassie drive his sheep over a cliff and The People, in a moment of long-delayed righteous indignation, despatching him likewise.

My real fear is that Labour will find a way of denying us this singular pleasure.

Chuck Unsworth

July 15th, 2009 9:49am Report this comment

West is/was wholly unimpressive. A lot of gold braid with very little brain, and precious little integrity - but that would suit Brown down to the ground.

West will cling to the wreckage for as long as possible before giving up the unequal struggle and sliding into the cold sea of memoirs, articles, media appearances etc.

EC

July 15th, 2009 10:08am Report this comment

Wot about Lord Amstrad of Gruff?

Rhoda Klapp

July 15th, 2009 10:49am Report this comment

Can it ever work? People however skilled and experienced producing work which does not fit with part considerations are going to be sidelined. What else could happen?

Let's call this 'lessons learned' and try to remember it next time some opportunistic pol tries it on.