The unfolding Brown government disaster, 2007-2008
Posted by Richard D North under Dare to be dull / Presentation or policy? on 23 September 2008
Gordon Brown used to insist that if and when he became Prime Minister he wanted to govern in a more sensible and even old-fashioned way. The implication was that the informal Sofa Government from the “den” of Blair’s Number 10 would come to an end. That impulse did not survive.
It was interesting that Mr Brown’s main move was to insist that he would be relying less on party political special advisers and more on civil servants. In practice, he chose to surround himself with a cadre of civil servants who had proven themselves to him quite personally, not least whilst serving him at his notoriously closed and cliquey Treasury. It matters a great deal that this may have have compromised them as impartial, apolitical bureaucrats. But it is worth noting that Mr Brown has picked them out, and held them close. That is almost the reverse of what he wanted us to believe. It is the opposite of the ideal whereby it is the Civil Service which deploys its forces, rather than ministers.
Sue Cameron, of the Financial Times, has long made a study of the relationship between Westminister and Whitehall. Here are several of her pieces for the FT which log the almost paranoid clannishness of Gordon Brown’s premiership as it emerged (rather quickly) when he became PM.
Hole at the heart of government
Sue Cameron
FT
2 September 2008
Brown bunker traps Sir Gus
Sue Cameron
FT
4 November 2007
Prowler Brown goes walkabout
Sue Cameron
FT
4 December 2007
Uncle Joe Brown?
Sue Cameron
FT
8 June 2007
Whitehall starts singing the blues
Sue Cameron
FT
29 April 2008
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