Matthew Paris on government activity
Matthew Paris has an excellent article today in The Times on the way the government is trying to frantically regain control of the press agenda by a constant flurry of small scale activity - not all of their annoucements are silly but none of them add up to a coherent policy.
You can read the article at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/
matthew_parris/article4359839.ece
Or the full text is:
Sound and press releases, signifying nothing
As the curtain falls, ministers are determined to leave the stage high-kicking in a burst of empty political noise
Matthew Parris
That Gordon Brown's position has “stabilised” is the conventional wisdom this weekend. On balance I share it. But I remember from school chemistry that if just one crystal is dropped into a supersaturated solution then, however apparently stable the liquid, it may suddenly seize and solidify. There is a kind of panic beneath the surface of the routine fidgeting of government this July
In three days Parliament rises. No further Westminster politics is planned now before the autumn. As the curtain falls for an extended interval, ministers have wished - consciously or otherwise - to leave the stage high-kicking in a burst of political noise.
But noise is what it is. Pure noise. As for harmony, rhythm, theme or - most important - conductor, disorder rules.
The Government is drowning in shallow water. Ministers flail around in an alphabet soup of piddling little initiatives. Each time the clock strikes a new idea of breathtaking triviality is press-released. With the morning papers come endless “clear messages” “sent out”, pointing in all directions and none. And in this frenzy of dots, nothing joins up. Seldom has so much activity combined to produce so dismal an impression of stalemate.
Last week alone we were promised help with dying; help with our corpses; with defending ourselves with guns indoors (“New law backs ‘have-a-go' heroes”); with not defending ourselves with knives outdoors; and with interpreting the Koran according to a government-sponsored Islamic board.
And we're going to be given tickets in a raffle for a new iPod if we vote in local elections. And a police bureaucrat is to be appointed as an “independent champion” against police bureaucracy. And Mr Brown has announced that we must not “walk away” from difficult decisions on greenhouse gases - and in the same breath cut increases in fuel tax. The announcements fly out like trinkets from a variety pack of Christmas crackers, and bear as little relationship to each other.
In the Commons on Wednesday Mr Brown furiously denied there was any linkage between his fuel-duty cut and the by-election in Glasgow East. Would that there were. Would that any links at all could be discerned - any logical connection - between the speeches, drafts and press releases bouncing around the media: reflexes of an administration strangely moribund, yet still jerking this way and that.
Take a look at initiatives for yesterday and Thursday alone, on the Central Office of Information's website: “Government calls on society to have its say on science”. Let me know if anyone from the Government gets in touch with you on this.
“Free bus passes for injured Armed forces personnel.” Lovely headline. Stupid, demeaning idea: totally unthought-through. What about injured police officers? Fire officers? What kinds of injury? What circumstances? What if they need a taxi?
“Cuts in Police red tape and more say for the public on Policing”. Haven't we had this one before? Didn't a “new era for policing”, with just this aim, “dawn” as the local election campaign was kicked off this year?
“Over one million people are benefiting from 419 new non-charging cash machines installed in low-income areas throughout the UK in the last 18 months.” And the Government has done this? 419? How many have been installed elsewhere over the same period? All the poor need now is money to draw out.
“A debate on how to continue to ensure a secure and sustainable supply of food in the future has today been launched by Hilary Benn.” Oh good.
“Blears Outlines New Economic People-Focused Approach to Regeneration”. Keep those Capital Letters coming, Hazel. People-Focused? As opposed to what? People-Phobic?
“Further Consultation on South East Vision.” must be viewed alongside Wednesday's announcement: “New vision to deliver North East Renaissance”. So many visions! So much renaissance! Truly, Joan of Arc and Catherine de' Medici combine within Ms Blears's small frame. On the very same day “Hazel Blears launches search for role models to inspire Black boys”. How? Maybe black boys should launch a search for role models to inspire Hazel Blears.
Meanwhile, the one serious and genuinely strategic new direction for transport policy, the only big transport idea the Government has entertained in a decade, the only one that needed courage - road-pricing - was dumped last week.
And why go on? I could mention the announcement of a “World first as Government computers go green” - whatever that may mean. I could mention the announcement that “Exploitation of Hajj Pilgrims must stop”.
But let's wrap this up with “Government Departments On Track to Meet Challenges of the Future”. Capital letters on common nouns in official press releases, like hats on ladies at social gatherings, are a sure sign the whole thing can be ignored. Read on, and you'll be left in no doubt...
“Three major departments of state are making good progress in building their capabillity to meet the demands of public service delivery in the 21st century, the Government announced today.” The logical implications are too depressing to contemplate. So the remaining departments are failing? Isn't building capability to meet anticipated demand what government departments do?
I bet I've left dozens out. There's been the futile posturing over knife crime and I seem to remember something about making problem families sign contracts to say they will cease to be problem families; and that the Government will buy flats from developers who can't sell them (for the developer a good alternative to lowering the price); and that the PM has been flying all over the place urging other people to extract more oil (as if they hadn't thought of that. Why didn't he send them an e-mail?)
But you get the gist. Not all of these initiatives are daft. And it's in the nature of government to tackle small as well as large tasks.
We could get the above list into perspective if we had a philosophical string on which to thread these coloured beads; and anything big, coherent and bold beside which to place it. But with the Brown Government the elephant in the room is that there's no elephant. In its place, communications gurus assure vacant-minded ministers that, because an insatiable media machine of 24-hour rolling news must be fed, they've got to keep those initiatives - any initiatives - coming.
The truth is otherwise. From a confidently led party with a coherent political philosophy, quite long periods of calm inactivity, even silence, are perfectly well understood by the voters. Voters hear tone more than they count words and measures. Babbling and tinkering inspire the opposite of confidence: they look desperate.
Departing Westminster this week and mistaking noise for meaning and motion for direction, Gordon Brown's administration make an unsettling spectacle. Just one crystal needs to drop.
You can read the article at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/
matthew_parris/article4359839.ece
Or the full text is:
Sound and press releases, signifying nothing
As the curtain falls, ministers are determined to leave the stage high-kicking in a burst of empty political noise
Matthew Parris
That Gordon Brown's position has “stabilised” is the conventional wisdom this weekend. On balance I share it. But I remember from school chemistry that if just one crystal is dropped into a supersaturated solution then, however apparently stable the liquid, it may suddenly seize and solidify. There is a kind of panic beneath the surface of the routine fidgeting of government this July
In three days Parliament rises. No further Westminster politics is planned now before the autumn. As the curtain falls for an extended interval, ministers have wished - consciously or otherwise - to leave the stage high-kicking in a burst of political noise.
But noise is what it is. Pure noise. As for harmony, rhythm, theme or - most important - conductor, disorder rules.
The Government is drowning in shallow water. Ministers flail around in an alphabet soup of piddling little initiatives. Each time the clock strikes a new idea of breathtaking triviality is press-released. With the morning papers come endless “clear messages” “sent out”, pointing in all directions and none. And in this frenzy of dots, nothing joins up. Seldom has so much activity combined to produce so dismal an impression of stalemate.
Last week alone we were promised help with dying; help with our corpses; with defending ourselves with guns indoors (“New law backs ‘have-a-go' heroes”); with not defending ourselves with knives outdoors; and with interpreting the Koran according to a government-sponsored Islamic board.
And we're going to be given tickets in a raffle for a new iPod if we vote in local elections. And a police bureaucrat is to be appointed as an “independent champion” against police bureaucracy. And Mr Brown has announced that we must not “walk away” from difficult decisions on greenhouse gases - and in the same breath cut increases in fuel tax. The announcements fly out like trinkets from a variety pack of Christmas crackers, and bear as little relationship to each other.
In the Commons on Wednesday Mr Brown furiously denied there was any linkage between his fuel-duty cut and the by-election in Glasgow East. Would that there were. Would that any links at all could be discerned - any logical connection - between the speeches, drafts and press releases bouncing around the media: reflexes of an administration strangely moribund, yet still jerking this way and that.
Take a look at initiatives for yesterday and Thursday alone, on the Central Office of Information's website: “Government calls on society to have its say on science”. Let me know if anyone from the Government gets in touch with you on this.
“Free bus passes for injured Armed forces personnel.” Lovely headline. Stupid, demeaning idea: totally unthought-through. What about injured police officers? Fire officers? What kinds of injury? What circumstances? What if they need a taxi?
“Cuts in Police red tape and more say for the public on Policing”. Haven't we had this one before? Didn't a “new era for policing”, with just this aim, “dawn” as the local election campaign was kicked off this year?
“Over one million people are benefiting from 419 new non-charging cash machines installed in low-income areas throughout the UK in the last 18 months.” And the Government has done this? 419? How many have been installed elsewhere over the same period? All the poor need now is money to draw out.
“A debate on how to continue to ensure a secure and sustainable supply of food in the future has today been launched by Hilary Benn.” Oh good.
“Blears Outlines New Economic People-Focused Approach to Regeneration”. Keep those Capital Letters coming, Hazel. People-Focused? As opposed to what? People-Phobic?
“Further Consultation on South East Vision.” must be viewed alongside Wednesday's announcement: “New vision to deliver North East Renaissance”. So many visions! So much renaissance! Truly, Joan of Arc and Catherine de' Medici combine within Ms Blears's small frame. On the very same day “Hazel Blears launches search for role models to inspire Black boys”. How? Maybe black boys should launch a search for role models to inspire Hazel Blears.
Meanwhile, the one serious and genuinely strategic new direction for transport policy, the only big transport idea the Government has entertained in a decade, the only one that needed courage - road-pricing - was dumped last week.
And why go on? I could mention the announcement of a “World first as Government computers go green” - whatever that may mean. I could mention the announcement that “Exploitation of Hajj Pilgrims must stop”.
But let's wrap this up with “Government Departments On Track to Meet Challenges of the Future”. Capital letters on common nouns in official press releases, like hats on ladies at social gatherings, are a sure sign the whole thing can be ignored. Read on, and you'll be left in no doubt...
“Three major departments of state are making good progress in building their capabillity to meet the demands of public service delivery in the 21st century, the Government announced today.” The logical implications are too depressing to contemplate. So the remaining departments are failing? Isn't building capability to meet anticipated demand what government departments do?
I bet I've left dozens out. There's been the futile posturing over knife crime and I seem to remember something about making problem families sign contracts to say they will cease to be problem families; and that the Government will buy flats from developers who can't sell them (for the developer a good alternative to lowering the price); and that the PM has been flying all over the place urging other people to extract more oil (as if they hadn't thought of that. Why didn't he send them an e-mail?)
But you get the gist. Not all of these initiatives are daft. And it's in the nature of government to tackle small as well as large tasks.
We could get the above list into perspective if we had a philosophical string on which to thread these coloured beads; and anything big, coherent and bold beside which to place it. But with the Brown Government the elephant in the room is that there's no elephant. In its place, communications gurus assure vacant-minded ministers that, because an insatiable media machine of 24-hour rolling news must be fed, they've got to keep those initiatives - any initiatives - coming.
The truth is otherwise. From a confidently led party with a coherent political philosophy, quite long periods of calm inactivity, even silence, are perfectly well understood by the voters. Voters hear tone more than they count words and measures. Babbling and tinkering inspire the opposite of confidence: they look desperate.
Departing Westminster this week and mistaking noise for meaning and motion for direction, Gordon Brown's administration make an unsettling spectacle. Just one crystal needs to drop.
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