But I do draw the line at the taxpaper coughing up £2,000 for one of the holders of the three great offices of state to get "leadership training". If Jacqui Smith didn't have the requisite leadership qualities, what on earth was Gordon Brown doing appointing her Home Secretary?
Her need for it was amply demonstrated by John Reid's comments during the Home Secretary's statement on Thursday.
I am surprised, to say the least, that the Secretary of State for the Home Department was not informed that her opposite number, effectively, was about to be arrested. If I had been told after the event that that had been done, I cannot think that I would have remained as placid as she has in the circumstances. Notwithstanding the fact that she has said that even if she had been informed, she would not have acted differently, I do not think that we should take that as a ruling that someone in her position should never be informed. For my part, I would have wanted to be informed, and to express a view on the matter.The subtext of that is that John Reid is a leader and Jacqui Smith is a politician who reacts to events. Or doesn't, as the case may be.
30 comments:
I'm all for hilarious stories about the idiocy of New Labour but this one doesn't quite hold water - it wasn't "leadership training" as such, that's just Daily Express spin. It was actually voice coaching and stress management coaching, something very many politicians go for, including I suspect leading Tories.
Incidentally, I urge people not to go to the link Iain has provided - that Express page bursts many adware popups, some of which appear to defeat even popup-resistant browser plugins. It also contains scripting errors which cause additional windows to burst in some browsers.
Not presumably that many people ever do go to the Express website!
Iain, just what is a "taxpaper"? Perhaps the word "taxpauper" would be more appropriate after Gordon the Profligate has finished with us taxpayers.
Yes, Despairing Liberal, Tories do have that too. And why not. The difference is that they pay for it themselves and don't charge it to the taxpayer. And if they didn't I would be just as critical of them.
Are you saying then Iain that they have never charged it to the taxpayer? For example during the Major government? You may be right, but I doubt it.
I like your blog and always find your thoughts interesting and enjoyable, but sometimes you make rather cheap points which lessen your overall impact as you lose credibility because of them. This is a minor example, but it is an example.
Or do you just believe everything you read in the Express?!
Also, are you the last reader of that august organ?
Let me repeat. If a Conservative politician did the same thing, I would be equally as critical. I can't say fairer than that.
Well OK, but you are slightly shifting the ground. Your main point appeared to be that she was going for leadership training and Big Gordy ought to know better than to employ senior ministers who need it. Now that's been shown to not be an issue, we've moved on to the cost side.
Personally I agree with you if it's true on both counts, but as usual there is an element of complexity to this.
Amazing though that the Express is not simply talking about Lady Di, is that all over now? And whatever happened to those charges against the Phoney Pharoah? If I may shift grounds!
Despairing, I haven't shifted the ground. You did! I have re-read the Express article and it is clear it was indeed leadership training, of which an element was voice coaching. So I guess we are both right.
Smith has few of the qualities of a good teacher (why she left the profession to become an MP perhaps?) so she is hardly likely to be a decent Home Secretary, a big step up, either.
Imagine if she'd stayed as a teacher and been overpromoted to a School Head?
I don't dare go back there to read it again Iain so that I can continue the fight, for fear that my PC will crash!
Was it with bloody Common Purpose?
Personally I would willingly donate some of my after tax income for Ms Smith to go on more lessons to gain some leadership qualities. All evidence to date points to her having none whatsoever.
Perhaps she should go on a Common Purpose course.
I think this is unduly harsh. The system certainly does not guarantee that those reaching ministerial office are necessarily equipped with the requisite skill set. I don't see how it can be argued that training to improve performance is not money well spent, particularly given the relatively modest sum involved.
Nice cop out by DespairingLiberal.
As for Jimmy, 'The system certainly does not guarantee that those reaching ministerial office are necessarily equipped with the requisite skill set.'
Exactly, we rely on the PM to choose people with the requisite skill set.
Now we have Gordon 'Big Tent' Brown who threw open the doors to a government of all the talents. He would never fill the most senior positions with purely political appointees would he??
I work freelance...if my skill sets don't include some ability I will need, I pay for the training myself, or more likely teach myself in my own time by using the vast amount of resources available on the Internet. I have worked all my life and never earned anywhere near as much as Blears rakes in (for what??). Why can't she use her own time and money, like most people do? She should go abroad and see how many people are learning English at their own expense.
Not copping out at all Conand. Iain has clearly just reposted the Express headline here that she attended leadership training, but in the article in usual newspaper style it goes on to qualify that by explaining that it is not actually leadership training as such, but something else.
I'm just pointing out that reposting Express headlines as-is without brain particularly engaged hardly qualifies as breathtaking blogging revelation. Although I do like this blog, Monsignor Dale often simply reposts right-wing redtop headlines as fact when they are no such thing. This is all the stranger when you note his evident loathing for them as expressed in his recent Press TV panel, which you can see a few postings down.
And note that I hold absolutely no brief for La Smith who is as loathsome a Home Sec. as I can easily recall and that's including all the ghastly Tory ones!
It IS a Common Purpose course!
DespairingLiberal obviously didn't read to the end: ' . . A Home Office spokesman said: “Ms Smith was given executive coaching, which is basically leadership coaching. We invest in all our staff and managers. Everybody is obliged to have some training. Just because she is Home Secretary doesn’t mean she should be excluded from staff training.'
The Express site seemed perfectly Ok to me, using Safari 3.2; perhaps DL needs to get a more up to date browser that can suppress pop-ups?
Conand,
You seem to believe that cabinet posts should not be political appointments. It's difficult to see how in a democracy they could be anything else. And I doubt there's a politician so gifted that he or she could not benefit from further training. I would be rather more concerned at those arrogant enough to believe there was nothing they could be taught.
The course would have been offered to disguise the fact that Ms Smith looks and sounds like what she used to be - a Home Economics (cookery) teacher.
It doesn't seem to have worked.
rob's uncle - i've had to pull you up before about your standards. Surely "rob's uncle" should in fact be "Robs' uncle" - clearly the first term is a personal name and therefore should have a preceeding capital. The second term only belongs indirectly to the first term.
Diary Notes
The Home Secretary
Gosh, it's been a busy week. Such a lot to think about. I really do wonder sometimes if this job is worth it, but then I remember that without Labour, people would be cast adrift under a Tory government, with all that implies. I am sure, quite sure, that for example all of our splendid Home Office innovations under Labour, and only under Labour, such as a range of new targets for increasing the quality of carpets in all our offices, would simply not have happened. And that is an appalling thought. I for one could not live with myself if I did not work hard literally night and day to enhance the overall pay and conditions for senior civil servants index-linked SERPS arrangements in the medium term. Needless to say and quite accidentally, this has a knock-on effect on the overall ministerial package. Well we can't work for nothing can we! And only we after all can save Britain from a Great Depression and that is a real risk. So be careful when you leap to attack us, Press people and Tory people. We know where you live. You have been warned.
It is at times like this that I am really glad that I studied Stalin and the East German Stasi so closely.
*****
It really does come back to belt tightening and also tightening up on opposition. We are belt tightening here in the Home Office by reducing our weekly champagne lunch budget for senior people by up to 1.2%. I am sure you share with me a deep satisfaction to know that we take such problems seriously. And that's where the difference is - Labour take things seriously. We are also as I say making sure that opposition is a thing of the past. There really is no excuse in modern Britain for the type of opposition we now see. I am not saying they are terrorists, but they are close to being terrorists. I am thinking now about the sort of MP who takes a justifiably top secret memo from my office about the increase in budget for massage therapy for senior civil servants and Ministers. He (and you know who you are!) used a mole-type undercover spy who nobody would ever guess had been a Tory other than that he once secretly ran asked us all if we wanted to join the party. I said "maybe - we'll put that on hold". Well - you never know how things will turn out! But he took it quite the wrong way.
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Stupidly, this silly, silly young man took that as a green light that we fully supported his actions. These were utterly unnaceptable in our democracy. Leaking is both criminal, dangerous and very possible an Al Quaida action, it is wholly criminal and a thuggish, violent, possibly even peadophilic act. Suffice to say that we at once summoned officers of the law. I was not present when they were briefed - I left right after a simple and concise statement of mine (Peter - should I say that I now deny I ever said this bit?) - simply to the effect that MI5 should bug all MPs until they find out who did it and then stick the b***ard in the slammer without charge even if he is an effing MP. Any sensible English (or come to that Scottish and/or Welsh) person would agree with me that this was quite reasonable in the circumstances. The policeman all nodded enthusiastically, which I took to mean that the DPP had been fully and independently consulted and this is not a matter for the Home Secretary.
The young civil servant spy and malicious criminal leaker in question has clearly been misguided by years of exposure to Tory lies. He will be dealt with kindly but firmly by means of a mass arrest of all his family and demolition of the family home, together with a very sensible and well-managed hysterical over-reaction in all levels of government about leaking.
I think you all know already what we did with the MP in question. Opposition is a privilege not a right. He has learned his lesson and will not be doing that again. I feel sure that the right people are listening. His mobile phone calls are particularly interesting. Calls to Thames House are charged at 0844 rates. Any queries to our new call centre in Bangalore.
****
Off to visit Peter on a really smashing yacht for a relaxing weekend talking about football and the very deep and worrying recession. Peter seems to be having mortgage problems but the nice gentleman with the Russian accent seems to be helpful. I wonder if he can help me? He tells me that he has been able to help a great many senior European officials, which is reassuring. We then discuss the excellent policing methods employed by his boss Mr Putin, who sounds a splendid fellow.
****
I am often asked if the Villa are the best football team on earth. "Of course they are!" I always answer, surprised by the question. I feel a similar surprise when people want to oppose Gordon. How can they be so foolish? Gordon is a great man, as indeed was Tony, although Gordon is of course better. Tony regrettably appointed Ruth, about whom the less said the better. I really had to sort out her dreadful mess in the DES. Which was very considerable. Basically as soon as the unions realised that we would have anyone who disagreed with us sent to a new special investigation team I fortunately established in record time, they became very friendly and supportive. The new investigation team utilised the Special Powers Against Teachers Act (2003) Clause 77673, which stipulates that any teacher disagreeing with Tony or Gordon or myself would be arrested and held without charge. Splendid and all passed through the Commons in record time - seven seconds in committee and just four seconds for a full debate. I do so admire our modern Labour democracy.
*****
We send a fraternal police delegation to Zimbabwe to investigate the appalling situation there, report back and generally try to help. Very poor work being done on this by the FCO and the foreign aid people (can't remember what that department is called now), so they obviously need my help. I have a fellow-feeling with many black people, having regularly smoked the same stuff they do when younger. Of course I don't smoke it now! That's why it needs reclassifying! We can't let just anyone smoke it. Anyway, back to the Zimbabwe issue.
It appears that the main problem there, as well as here, is opposition. Mr Mugabe is such an admirable man in so many ways. He uses both police and secret powers to the absolute max and you can't help but feel (as I feel and I'm sure most decent people who are not terrorists feel) that the dreadful MDC opposition need to be dealt with very, very firmly. I shall be making this clear to Douglas Alexander (remembered it's called DFID now - why did I have to remember that on my own - will the civil servant who failed to remember that for me report in to a police station in the morning) - and calling for urgent action to support Mr Mugabe by retraining his police forces. It is quite clear that a lack of proper targets for police and army in Zimbabwe lie at the heart of their problems. We also need to deal with the Cholera crisis by preventing further immigration from Zimbabwe and ensuring that none of the Zimbabwean doctors and nurses now here under NHS targets for overseas recruitment are permitted to return.
******
Football is a marvellous game and that is why our new targets for football (now at last in law - the Policing of Football Act 2009 - soon to be announced by Peter in Corfu, but we treat it as a law already) will be very, very useful and completely appropriate. The targets call for more goals by Midlands clubs and more photos of admiring ministers in prestige seats to be published in all local and regional media on their front pages. It is clearly innapropriate that all the effort Labour ministers put into associating themselves with sporting superstars should go unnoticed. Any football club or newspaper refusing to obey will quickly find their bank loans removed.
*****
Blogging is a terrible thing, as we all accept and indeed observe. Apart from the opportunities it offers terrorists to organise and spread their hate, it also quite plainly enables opposition to openly (and I have to say very disturbingly) spread facts about government in a quite uncontrolled manner. Labour will deal with this very openly and with full democratic debate outside the Queens Speech. We therefore propose via a news release to Hello Magazine that all blogging be now suspended. Our new and much-needed legislation, "The Control of Public Blogging (and Related Crimes Such as Daleism, Fawkesism and Other Specified Tory Blogging Persons) Act 2010" will be enacted via Queens Regulations using Privy Council Powers to apply to all police and army units located near a blogger.
All bloggers must realise that as British Citizens they are governed by the same laws as the rest of us. Clause 921(B.1.V.12-C(d)) enables any police officer to arrest a blogger, smash up their computer equipment (dangerously used for spreading terrorist Tory ideas) and throw the said blogger into the Harmondsworth Blogger Detention Facility. Only then will the public be safe. What a marvellous tool for democracy the internet is! (Note - remember to thank the Chinese Ambassador for his suggestions on this - J.S.)
******
Public safety is always our uppermost concern and Parliament is clearly now a threat to public safety. In my next diary I am going to outline our new plans for making sure that Parliament is dealt with properly.
Interesting blog story Iain especially when one considers that a friend of mine who is a Labour Party Member himself got a letter last week offering free leadership training.
This seems to go beyond what you say Iain.
La Smith also needs House Training - in every sense.
I think the problem isn't so much that she got training, or that we paid for it. I'd rather have them spend public money to improve their ability to do a good job for us.
The problem is that "leadership" is an inate talent, something that you are born and/or bred with. It is not a skill. Leadership is a product of your personality and your attitude.
Everything else is management, administration and marketing. You can get those skills from coaching or university, but you can no more teach leadership than you can teach humour.
Jimmy,
Jackboot Jaqui speaks and acts like a very underperforming haughty leftie NUT teacher, who was the worst we had in a school where I was a governor. It had a head teacher not unlike Brown, a shady character, who recruited her. After the school failed the ofstead inspection and recorded very bad result like the British economy under Brown has done, they were both removed and the school's preformance soared within years. There is a lesson here.
norman,
I'm impressed. Not many political governors take the time to evaluate individual teachers.
I reckon she's already had some "common purpose" training.
Is "Common Purpose" the new "Building 7"?
DespairingLiberal: I note & agree yr point re capitals but am disinclined to act just now; nephew Robert has had a good week so I do not wish to do anything to emphasise the link between him [a respectable member of H M Lobby] and a mere onlooker like me.
Verification = sidslism
I don't know what this is and don't wish to know.
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