AND SUGAR HAS TAKEN 30 SHEKELS OF SILVER FROM THIS MAN
OR PETER MANDELSON!
We have to get rid of the man for he’s clearly unhinged. But he
also is a continuing disaster for Britain. Nothing else is as important
Most of you know of Ruth Lea and you know of her total integrity.
=================================
CONSERVATIVE HOME 7.6.09
- Centre Right
Posted by Ruth Lea
Gordon Brown never was fit for Number10
As we await the EU election results with baited breath, the pressure is mounting on Gordon Brown to quit. Of course he must quit and, of
course, there must be a general election as soon as is possible. The
sense of drift and disintegration at the heart of Government is
deeply damaging to this country. We need a new Government and,
speaking as a loyal member of the Conservative Party for many years,
we need a Conservative Government!
As the pressure on him to quit increases, so the tally of articles
and leaked e-mails discussing his character defects increases. We
hear of his temper, his intolerance of dissent, his character
assassination, and his manipulative, scheming ways. Well there’s a
surprise. There are many of us who have known about it for years.
Several years ago and when I was still Head of the Policy Unit at the
IoD, I think it was in 2001, I was a member of the IoD’s team which
went to see the Chancellor at the Treasury to discuss our Budget
Representations. All went swimmingly until the Chancellor asked our
Director-General what IoD members thought about his policies. The DG
made a feeble response and handed the question over to me. I replied
along the lines of “…some of your policies have been very well
received – but others less so. The increased employment regulations,
for example, can prove very difficult for small businesses.”
“Which ones?” the Chancellor demanded. “Several. But the Working
Families Tax Credit, and I understand your reasons for introducing
it, can prove especially difficult.”
He blew up. No fuse. Just blew up. Didn’t I realise why he had
introduced it (I’d just said that I did)? …didn’t I this? …didn’t I
that? …didn’t I the other? And so this curious tirade went on for
what seemed like an eternity. I have never encountered anything like
it in my life and hope I never will again. The man was out of
control. Then he suddenly took a grip on himself and we went back to
discussing the Budget. Surreal. At the end of the meeting he turned
to the DG and said that he was sorry he’d lost his temper. The DG
graciously accepted the apology. The Chancellor ignored me.
I should have realised at this point that I had become ‘persona non
grata’ at Gordon’s court. But I have to admit that I didn’t. Gordon’s
court was, of course, a staggeringly influential one – all powerful.
For domestic affairs he was the de facto ‘prime minister’ with much
of the rest of Whitehall, including the DTI, vassal states.
As the months went by it was increasingly obvious that Government
pressure was being put on the IoD “to cooperate, if not collaborate”
with Government in order to be “influential”. It must stop being
“political”, i.e. criticising the Government. The senior management
were only too willing to comply and the DG, in particular, was
evermore fulsome in his praise for the Chancellor. The 2002 Budget
was a case in point. The DG welcomed it wholeheartedly despite the
Chancellor’s decision to increase taxes on business by around £5bn in
order to pay for his spending spree – a fact he conveniently
overlooked! My presence at the IoD was increasingly inconvenient.
So I was sacked, amid rumours put around by the DG that I was
“mentally unstable”. Nice one. I wonder where that idea came from!
Fortunately there were many people, including those at the Centre for
Policy Studies, who supported me at the time. I shall be eternally
grateful to them.
The squalid little affair of my sacking, including the evidence I
obtained through the Data Protection Act which proved the DTI’s
involvement, was brilliantly reported by Peter Oborne in a couple of
articles in May 2004. I have little to add, except two things. The
first was that I asked the DTI for follow-up information through the
Freedom of Information Act. My request was rejected on the grounds
the information was classified. Speaking as an ex-civil servant this
is simply not credible. And, secondly, the senior management of the
IoD were well rewarded. The DG received his knighthood and the
Chairman his OBE.
Doubtless politics has always had its dark side. But the depths to
which it has sunk over the last 12 years under New Labour has been
unprecedented in this country. Of all the legacies left by this
Government the poisoning of political discourse is surely the worst.
Gordon Brown, foul-tempered and intolerant, has been at the very
centre of this mess.
Gordon Brown never was fit for Number 10 and, given the wreckage of
the economy, the public finances and the financial regulatory system,
was never fit for Number 11 either.
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