5 Comments »

1. If Blair is still confident in Beverley he must be nuts – and one of very few (the rest being cronies) in the country. Where is the Blair of 97 please?
   Hipster

   Comment by Hipster — 30 Mar 2004 on 2:11 pm | Link

2. The Blair of ’97 is in 10 Downing Street doing almost exactly what he said he would do, only some fools were never listening in ’97 and didn’t realise what a Blair government would mean.

   Comment by David Boothroyd — 30 Mar 2004 on 2:16 pm | Link

3. This is a bit like what happened with Major’s government. A minister screws up and the PM voice their full support (a bit like chairmen of football clubs and their managers.) The press decide to target a minister and then it is just a question of whether the minister can hang on until the next reshuffle or not.

   The issue for TB (as it was for John Major) is that in the mind of the public, he is just supporting a crony who doesnt’t deserve to remain in her job. The rest of the UK know that if they had behaved like Hughes in their jobs, at best they’d gave been given a written warning if not sacked on the spot. It is made particularly worse by the prevarication shown by Hughes instead of any contrition whatsoever.

   When taken together, this relentless support by TB of ministers who are useless just reinforces (and there have been a succession of ministers that this has happened with) the image of sleaze, incompetence and jobs for the boys (or girls). He would be far better to take a harder line with his incompetent ministers and state that he won’t tolerate mediocrity.

   What irritates the public most is the incompetence and the fact nothing is being done about it. It reflects what the public experience every day in their dealing with government bodies such as the health service, the DSS and so on.

   Comment by DEGREEK — 30 Mar 2004 on 3:12 pm | Link

4. Up to a point, perhaps. But immigration is a different and more charged issue than day-to-day service delivery.

   The Government decided to ride the tiger of tabloid paranoia rather than shooting it, and it is now learning – too late – that you can’t stop that particular tiger from getting hungry.

   I think it’s right for the Gvt to keep hold of Hughes. It’s not just a competence issue, it’s an issue of the putschists in the Daily Express trying to barge the Gvt (even) further to the right on this issue. Like the Vikings and the Danegeld, if you give in they’ll be back for more before too long.

   Comment by Marek Ostrowski — 30 Mar 2004 on 3:59 pm | Link

5. This is a Civil Service issue, not a Ministerial one, and they are generally hopeless. It is this level of incompetence that sparks Military Coups.

   Comment by Hugh Tattersall — 30 Mar 2004 on 9:02 pm | Link

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