FT article on what the Mandarins think of Brown
An interesting article this week in the Financial Times - a paper that has backed Labour in some recent General Elections - about how senior civil servants allegedly view the Brown government.
Brown bunker traps Sir Gus
By Sue Cameron
Oh dear! No one in Whitehall expected Gordon Brown to revert to type so quickly. He has been in Number 10 less than six months but, to the horror of civil servants, he has already hunkered down and cut most communication with the rest of government. Insiders say that no papers, no ideas and no decisions are getting through the barbed wire – only announcements from the leader that have been discussed with no one outside Mr Brown’s inner circle.
As a result, the corridors of power have become the corridors of impotence. Whitehall teems with unhappy cabinet ministers who have not been consulted or even informed about proposals that concern them – little details such as the date of the Budget, troop withdrawals in Iraq or the cancelling of the general election.
Equally significant yet unnoticed by outsiders is the impact on officials who find they are as much out of the loop as ever they were in the days of Tony Blair. With their ministers sidelined, their own expertise – and sometimes months of work on new proposals – is being ignored.
Their mood has shifted markedly from the welcome they gave Mr Brown in the summer. They feel he has reneged on his promises of a return to a more open, listening government. Criticism among the permanent secretaries, Whitehall’s college of cardinals, is swelling.
“It’s nonsense to think of Brown as a principled man who wants a new constitutional settlement,” snorted one Whitehall knight. Over a light Italian lunch he revealed that there are even murmurings against the popular Sir Gus O’Donnell, cabinet secretary and head of the home civil service.
“There’s a lot of anti-Gus feeling about,” he said, tucking into his veal chop. “People are saying he is too close to Brown, that he’s been seduced by the fact that he is inside the big tent. He’s not looking after other cabinet ministers and their departments. He should be telling Brown that he needs more people in the tent and that he should let them make some of the announcements.”
Some senior figures are more sympathetic to Sir Gus. “I wouldn’t have his job for the world,” confided one. “Gus knows about the bunker mentality and he’s probably doing his best to improve things but Brown is ruthless. If Gus tries to distance himself, Brown will cut him loose – he’d be completely finished.”
Which puts Sir Gus between a rock and a hard place. My lunch guest’s parting shot as he sipped the last of his wine was that Sir Gus risked being seen as just part of the ruling clique. “The danger then is that when the clique falls, he’ll go too. Especially,” he added, “when the ruling clique is not very good.”
Young pretenders
Of course, one of the things getting up the nostrils of Whitehall’s dissidents is Mr Brown’s reliance on what they call the “teenagers”: the two Eds – Balls and Miliband – plus Douglas Alexander. Whitehall has its doubts about all three.
Everyone agrees that Mr Balls has brains but they worry that he is naive about practicalities. “Ed doesn’t do delivery,” sighed one official. Mr Alexander is unpopular in part because of shortcomings in the social skills department. According to rumour control, civil servants have actually had to sit him down and tell him that he would do better if he looked people in the eye and thanked them for coming in. (The approved method for telling politicians unpleasant home truths is for a senior official to breeze in and say: “Now, minister, you’ll want some feedback on how you are doing...” )
Then there is young Mr Miliband. Not young David Miliband, the foreign secretary, aka Miliband Minor, said to be on a sharp learning curve and not that close to Mr Brown. (Perhaps because he considered standing against Mr Brown for the Labour leadership.) No, the Miliband with a pass to the bunker is Ed, his younger brother – Miliband Minimus.
He is in charge of ideas on public service reform but has not yet said whether the government should rein in the Blair agenda – diversity, choice, private sector provision – or follow it. Frustrated Whitehall officials say that until Miliband Minimus pronounces, other ministers are afraid to put their heads above the parapet lest they see black smoke signals belching from the Brown bunker.
Deadhand
The government seeks a motto. What about that of the late, great Sir Alec Clegg, West Riding chief education officer, who said of bad teachers – and of bad government, no doubt: “While there’s death there’s hope.”
Brown bunker traps Sir Gus
By Sue Cameron
Oh dear! No one in Whitehall expected Gordon Brown to revert to type so quickly. He has been in Number 10 less than six months but, to the horror of civil servants, he has already hunkered down and cut most communication with the rest of government. Insiders say that no papers, no ideas and no decisions are getting through the barbed wire – only announcements from the leader that have been discussed with no one outside Mr Brown’s inner circle.
As a result, the corridors of power have become the corridors of impotence. Whitehall teems with unhappy cabinet ministers who have not been consulted or even informed about proposals that concern them – little details such as the date of the Budget, troop withdrawals in Iraq or the cancelling of the general election.
Equally significant yet unnoticed by outsiders is the impact on officials who find they are as much out of the loop as ever they were in the days of Tony Blair. With their ministers sidelined, their own expertise – and sometimes months of work on new proposals – is being ignored.
Their mood has shifted markedly from the welcome they gave Mr Brown in the summer. They feel he has reneged on his promises of a return to a more open, listening government. Criticism among the permanent secretaries, Whitehall’s college of cardinals, is swelling.
“It’s nonsense to think of Brown as a principled man who wants a new constitutional settlement,” snorted one Whitehall knight. Over a light Italian lunch he revealed that there are even murmurings against the popular Sir Gus O’Donnell, cabinet secretary and head of the home civil service.
“There’s a lot of anti-Gus feeling about,” he said, tucking into his veal chop. “People are saying he is too close to Brown, that he’s been seduced by the fact that he is inside the big tent. He’s not looking after other cabinet ministers and their departments. He should be telling Brown that he needs more people in the tent and that he should let them make some of the announcements.”
Some senior figures are more sympathetic to Sir Gus. “I wouldn’t have his job for the world,” confided one. “Gus knows about the bunker mentality and he’s probably doing his best to improve things but Brown is ruthless. If Gus tries to distance himself, Brown will cut him loose – he’d be completely finished.”
Which puts Sir Gus between a rock and a hard place. My lunch guest’s parting shot as he sipped the last of his wine was that Sir Gus risked being seen as just part of the ruling clique. “The danger then is that when the clique falls, he’ll go too. Especially,” he added, “when the ruling clique is not very good.”
Young pretenders
Of course, one of the things getting up the nostrils of Whitehall’s dissidents is Mr Brown’s reliance on what they call the “teenagers”: the two Eds – Balls and Miliband – plus Douglas Alexander. Whitehall has its doubts about all three.
Everyone agrees that Mr Balls has brains but they worry that he is naive about practicalities. “Ed doesn’t do delivery,” sighed one official. Mr Alexander is unpopular in part because of shortcomings in the social skills department. According to rumour control, civil servants have actually had to sit him down and tell him that he would do better if he looked people in the eye and thanked them for coming in. (The approved method for telling politicians unpleasant home truths is for a senior official to breeze in and say: “Now, minister, you’ll want some feedback on how you are doing...” )
Then there is young Mr Miliband. Not young David Miliband, the foreign secretary, aka Miliband Minor, said to be on a sharp learning curve and not that close to Mr Brown. (Perhaps because he considered standing against Mr Brown for the Labour leadership.) No, the Miliband with a pass to the bunker is Ed, his younger brother – Miliband Minimus.
He is in charge of ideas on public service reform but has not yet said whether the government should rein in the Blair agenda – diversity, choice, private sector provision – or follow it. Frustrated Whitehall officials say that until Miliband Minimus pronounces, other ministers are afraid to put their heads above the parapet lest they see black smoke signals belching from the Brown bunker.
Deadhand
The government seeks a motto. What about that of the late, great Sir Alec Clegg, West Riding chief education officer, who said of bad teachers – and of bad government, no doubt: “While there’s death there’s hope.”
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