Jul 01 2007
Advice to Gordon - sleep when you can and be grateful
We learn that the PM was angry that he was not woken at 2.30 am to be told of the car bomb in London, and is briefing against officials.
The officials behaved entirely properly. They woke the Home Secretary and briefed her. If anyone is to blame for not waking the PM it is the Home Secretary, as she could have instructed officials to tell the PM immediately if she thought it necessary. The important democratic nicety was that a senior elected official knew and was in charge.
I think the officials were right to wake the Home Secretary, and she was right not to wake the PM. There was nothing he could have done. It is a bad sign that he does not wish to delegate and that he thinks his Home Secretary was incapable of handling the first professional response to the car bombs herself.
Too many officials report that Labour Ministers have??treated them badly - brieifng against your own officials is the height of folly and will come back to haunt him.??
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
