There is a must-read piece in the Mail on Sunday by the impeccably connected Sue Cameron, who provides a compelling inventory of the Brown administration’s dysfunctions.
My favourite detail – so rich in irony – is that Number Ten is frustrated by the poor flow of information from the Treasury, and that the PM’s aides were especially furious that details of the changes to capital gains tax were settled without reference to them.
The reason? Habit. During the Blair-Brown years, the Treasury’s entire culture was founded on the principle that its officials kept Number Ten in the dark until absolutely necessary.
‘We don’t normally tell No 10 what we’re doing,’ according to one senior official quoted in the article. ‘We haven’t been telling them for the past ten years.’
In this case, to know his enemy Gordon need only look in the mirror.
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