I can already feel that the Tory leadership race is gonna give me an ulcer, because of the number of people on the centre and left who have neither read a history book nor the news saying things like “hopefully the Tory party will move to the right”.
Occasional reminder that a retiring senior civil servant of my acquaintance called Jenrick “the worst minister I have had directly to deal with in 45 years” prompting a scramble to work out who in the Heath government was worse.
Which other ministers of the last mob had he directly worked with? Would be interesting to know if he’s worse than Grayling, Truss, Braverman etc. ad nauseum
I don’t (think) I know the official Jim is referring to, but comfortably worse than all of those. Two of those I think it’s a category error to confuse “bad” with “crap”.
Grayling was crap in that at transport he had no vision and at MoJ he was dreadful at holding his own in spending round negotiations, which is a big part of why the criminal justice system is in crisis now.
He was bad in that on top of being forced into cuts and the privatisation of the probation system (consequences of being crap), he did pointlessly draconian things like banning books from prisons.
But he is a perfectly pleasant individual to every official I’ve spoken to and was capable of giving political direction to the civil servants (“urk! My department has been completely fucked in this spending round, please find ways to ameliorate this, while getting me good write ups”)
Truss was bad in that her stated aim at Trade was to get loads of deals signed as quickly as possible to bolster her standing and she didn’t really care at all about their impact or quality. But she wasn’t “crap”, in that she was able to have a bad aim and actually get it done.
Patel - as IMO the inquiry makes clear - is your classic crap manager who bullies people not out of malice and genuinely doesn’t realise they’re doing it, but because they can’t do the job - and also wanted to do a lot of awful stuff.
Braverman really is Patel’s Wario, in that she’s polite, personally courteous, actually could do the “running a meeting with officials without bullying them”, but she wanted to do, and could have with a better PM, done a bunch of IMV cruel and terrible things.
Jenrick - he basically can’t do anything? The painting over the illustration really sums him up, in that it was pointlessly cruel, politically stupid, and also a level of micromanagement that he shouldn’t have been doing.
IIRC she was demanding her civil servants achieve certain Brexit goals that were impossible, then blaming them when they weren't achieved. A milder version of what dictators like Stalin do.
Braverman, on returning from maternity leave, was asked “What are your priorities, minister?” and replied, in front of half of the department, “Firstly we need to raise my profile.”
I think it’s unlikely, but I am intrigued as to how “Rishi Sunak’s talents as an administrator, without Sunak’s ability to inspire devotion in his inner circle” would resolve itself in a Jenrick leadership.
If the Tories want to get back on their feet they need to ditch anyone associated with the previous government(s). Go for someone younger and less tainted by association. Fresh start.
Problem is there is no one like that and maybe the next pm was elected this week but they have to decide all in or all out on Farage first and if that means a split so be it .. Keir made a choice and in the end most stayed with him
