Monday, October 06, 2008

Why did Mandy Get the Clap?

I don't know whether anyone has asked recently, but where did this habit (for that is what it is becoming) of clapping the Secretaries of State in and out come from? It somewhat resembles the People's Republic of North Korea.

On Friday at BERR an e-mail went round to say John Hutton would be leaving at 1.30. The masses duly gathered to clap/say their goodbyes or just waste half an hour only for him to walk out of the front of the office to discover that his car was at the back.

A further e-mail went round to say that Mandy would be arriving at 4.30 to be followed up by a tannoy announcement. Weren't there large enough crowds there for the welcome without the tannoy? Another half hour or so wasted.

Just over a year ago a friend of mine happened to have an appointment at DCSF which shares a building with DWP when James Purnell was due to arrive at his new Ministry. He had moved from DCMS. No such mass of people there (they clearly don't do it so well or was it the personalities that required a welcoming party) just a nervous Permanent Secretary and Private Secretary waiting on the pavement and my friend and one of his staff in the entrance hall.

A complaint has now been made to Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, about Mandy's 'clapping in' as cameras were present and it could be construed as verging on the party political.

It should be mentioned that in his previous stint at the DTI, Peter Mandelson was a very popular Secretary of State with his officials.

27 comments:

Fitaloon said...

Jonah strikes again as Mandy goes to Hospital.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1772652.ece#OTC-RSS&ATTR=News

Old BE said...

Iain, Labour has spent its whole time in office politicising anything it possibly can. That is why Jacks was so annoyed that Boris sacked Sir Ian. Cameron is going to have to spend his whole time in office fighting the Labourised civil service machine.

Alan Douglas said...

With Tony Blair's arrival in Downing Street in 1997 ? To the spontaneous applause of the eagerly waiting general populace ? Spontaneously bussed in from Labour strongholds, as it later turned out ?

Very British.

Alan Douglas

John Backhouse said...

The clapping by wildly excited staff started when that fool Gordon Brown arrived at the treasury. If you can believe it, that one was supposed to be authentic, unlike the party staff gathered in Downing Street. Serves the damned fools right, if you ask me.

Anonymous said...

Peter Mandelson was a very popular Secretary of State with his officials.

But that was four years ago. Some of the people clapping were clearly too young to have worked with him previously. Were they put under political pressure, or was it suggested that their jobs might depend upon co-operation?

Anonymous said...

Peter Mandelson is a very popular minister who inspires trust in all those who see him. Unlike you Tories.

Anonymous said...

I agree that it does verge on the party political. The civil service shouldn't be politicised, but then neither should the police.

Catosays said...

Draper's Dollybot said...

Peter Mandelson is a very popular minister who inspires trust in all those who see him. Unlike you Tories.

October 06, 2008 9:59 AM

I'd trust Mandy about as far as I can spit through a concrete wall.

Anonymous said...

The clap - I thought it was a different urinary tract problem that he needed an operation for.

According to the BBC "A spokesman for the Business Department said he had undergone some hospital tests on Sunday"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7654252.stm

That surely was not on the NHS then - or was it?

Not sure us mere mortals would get tests done on a Sunday at the NHS for a recent problem that had not even affected our ability to work.

Newmania said...

Quite right Iain it was thoroughly Party Poltical and warpe the way the whole ludicrous story appeared in the press

Anonymous said...

Civil servants seem to have lost the plot. This "reception" was out of order

Anonymous said...

The civil service, the police -(pre-Boris, of course!), the education system, the media (in particular Al Beeb) and the health service have been politicised over the last 11 years - either you're blind or dumb if you hadn't noticed.

I went on the the HMRC website the other day searching for pension credit details (sad, I know) and it was like a marketing suite for Nu Labour - unbelievable.

Said it before and will say it again - without doubt, the most dangerous Government to have run this country since Alfred the Great.

Anonymous said...

When Winston Churchill returned to the admiralty he got taht treatment, but then that was under very special circumstances.

Anonymous said...

Before we get too much in a lather condemn the NuLabour spin machine for the distasteful sight of old-style Eastern Block clapping, remember that it was the Tories who started to politicise the Civil-Service. The technique used was performance-related pay, initially in the top-echelons, where the judge of the performance was essentially the Minister.

Overall I preferred po-faced civil-service types who were able to keep their political opinions to themselves.

Anonymous said...

Good question but then again WHY did Cameron and the Tories clap Blair out of the Commons at the end of his last PMQs ? - that's a more pertinent question

Anonymous said...

You might also ask how many of those applauding were Civil Servants, given that HQ offices now seem to have so many not on payroll.

Also, how many had been on their way home but had to take their coats off and put them out of sight.

Anonymous said...

This goes back a long time, but I used to work at the MOD and it was the stuff of departmental legend that when Portillo left a huge number of staff gathered in the main hall to see his departure and that many of them were crying. It could just be that, as you point out at the bottom of the piece that he's hugely popular with his officials - as Portillo was at MOD...... there's not necessarily a conspiracy in everything you know.

John Backhouse said...

I get NHS tests carried out at the weekend all the time. I must've had 10 in the last year, not coutning the times I spent in hospital. Then again, it is less than a year since I had a kidney transplant so perhaps that is different...

Anonymous said...

A chap in the front of the frame looked very bored so its clear that it was a put up not a genuine job.

Given the dismal performance of Brown since, I think it was a good move to clap Blair out. There is a fact no tory can deny - Blair won 3 elections.
Sitting on hands sulking would have made us look miserable old goats, better to be magnanimous. At the end of the day Blair was after all being thrown out by his own party. We can be polite as well as saying good riddance.

Anonymous said...

It's a pretty old custom, Iain. When Labour lost the 1970 election, outgoing Secretary of State for Scotland Willie Ross was highly disturbed by the enthusiasm with which Scottish Office civil servants 'clapped in' his Conservative successor, Gordon Campbell, as the two men passed in the hall. Ross, restored to the post in 1974, distrusted staff thereafter.

Anonymous said...

I can see why this winds you up Iain, but I don't find is as objectionable as maybe I should. The tradition began with the Downing Street staff lining up inside and clapping PMs in and out, which I think nicely sums up the civil service's impartiality, rather than its partisanship.

The extension of the tradition to Departments is understandable, and equally shows they are able and willing to work with a new minister. Does anyone doubt those same civil servants would give an equally warm welcome to, say, Alan Duncan, following an election win? Of course they would. And I bet we'd allow cameras in on that.

Johnny Norfolk said...

Boris or Mandy. Who would you trust and like to have round for dinner.

Alan Douglas said...

Anon 10.06 says : "The civil service shouldn't be politicised, but then neither should the police."

So therefore you agree that Sir Ian Blair putting/allowing Labour election posters on police cars is quite sufficient reason for him to have to resign ? So glad.

Alan Douglas

Anonymous said...

I could not believe what I was watching on the box on Friday afternoon. Since when were ministers applauded in this manner or is there a tradition that ALL ministers are greeted in this manner? Struck me as being like something out of a communist regime. Most unbritish!Mandy has only been in the job for a few hours when we learn that he was rubbishing Gordy in a recent conversation with George Osbourne. I guess we get the politicos we deserve but Mandy is so loathed by a huge swathe of the public that his reappointment has to be a big blunder by GB. And let's not mention the truly despicable Campbell. Perhaps Gordy realizes that all is doomed and when he goes down he will be able to say to Tony that he sunk with a government of all the talents!

Anonymous said...

It shouldn't be allowed because the civil servants are not paid to clap, they are paid to work and this took place during working hours.

Anonymous said...

What nonsense all these comments seeing political interference where none exists. Civil servants - and I am one - support whoever is their Minister. They will clap just as loud when their new Tory Ministers arrive in 2010. But of course your boys will be all "no, no. please don't clap - you've all got to be neutral." Right.

Anonymous said...

Aren't you forgetting that Alistair Campbell is back?