Oct 05 2007
The four crises on Brown’s watch
When I tell people in the media Gordon Brown is an unlucky Prime Minister, with terrorism, animal disease, floods and a bank run in the first three months, they defensively tell me that is unfair as none of the crises were anything to do with the PM and he handled them well. There are no limits to the gullibility of some people.
Let’s look at the record.
FOOT AND MOUTH.
This occurred thanks to the release of dangerous pathogens from a government/government contractor laboratory. The government was responsible for the work and the health and safety regulation of the facility. A broken drain appears to be the source. The person most directly to blame is Mr Miliband, the Secretary of State responsible before the outbreak occurred, but the government as a whole has to take collective responsibility.
The PM took personal control of the outbreak when first notified, and was involved in the decision to declare the outbreak finished and to restore normal life shortly before further cases emerged. He has been less prominent in handling the second wave of the outbreak. Those of us who queried whether the first decision on a control zone took in enough of Surrey were said to be wrong by the PM and his team at the time.
In this case the government has to accept all of the blame for the disaster, and the PM has to accept that his crisis handling was bungled, as the disease broke out again days after he declared victory.
THE RUN ON THE BANK
Gordon Brown’s botched reforms of the Bank of England and the money markets in 1997-8 lie behind for the run on the bank. Some of us warned at the time - and subsequently - that taking responsibility for banking supervision and government debt management away from the Bank of England made it more likely they would mishandle money markets when conditions globally got more difficult. The PM and the Chancellor were deaf to the clear warnings from many in the city - and this blogsite - that money market conditions were far too tight this summer. They ignored the actions of the Fed and the ECB in making money available to their markets to prevent a similar bank run there.
The Chancellor spent one of the crisis Fridays on TV condemning me for wishing to see this government’s latest round of mortgage regulaiton removed, instead of grapsing the fact that we had no run on a mortgage bank before we had the regulation, but have had one now we have it! Effective management of the money market allied to effective regulation of banks requires the tasks of debt management, banking superviison and interest rate setting to be concentrated in Bank of England hands so they understand the markets fully and can make sensible judgements about how much cash to supply. It also requires the government to renegotiate the Brussels directives which they say prevented the Bank from organising a private sector solution to the problems of Northern Rock, once these had been created by undue monetary tightness.
In this case the PM himself has to accept that his reforms of the money markets have not worked and need changing.
THE FLOODS
Of course I do not blame the government for the heavy rains, but I do blame them for the failure to keep many of the ditches, drains and culverts clear of debris and vegetation which added to the floods in some places. I blame them for many decisions of government Inspectors to build on flood plain against local advice and wishes: in my area it was often new homes built in such circumstances that suffered. I do blame them for not taking more action over the last ten years to improve the flood defences of the country, both against river flood and sea flood. I have gone hoarse in the Commons saying we need to tackle the flood threats urgently.
Whilst the Environment Agency has been charming to me ever since I criticised them, they still have not come up with a responsiblity list for the flood defences in my area, nor with an action programme to improve flood defences for the future. Whilst the PM asked for my list of things to do, the letter that carried it to Downign Street rermains unanswered. That is the reaility of this government - all spin and no substance.
IN THREE OUT OF THE FOUR CASES THE GOVERNMENT IS EITHER TO BLAME OR PARTLY TO BLAME FOR THE CRISIS. IN EACH CASE THE HANDLING HAS BEEN INEFFECTIVE, WITH NO DECISIVE ACTION TO RESTORE PROPER MONETARY CONTROL OR PREVENT FLOODS IN THE FUTURE.
Come to think of it, I have been far too generous saying he is an unlucky Prime Minister. He look as if he is unable to run government effectively, and thinks that the main task is to woo the media.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Interestingly enough, Gordon Brown used our ability to ’survive disasters’ such as floods in his speech about why Britain is so great at the Labour conference. I don’t think the message about his government’s deceitful and incompetent handling of the issue got through to the public.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
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I suggest you are right in what you say. Although some may say he is unlucky, I would suggest his luck is more influenced by Contributory negligence on his part as a result of shortsighted policy decisions. One can say that local authorities are partially to blame for the flooding, but when a Stalinist style government starves the South of funding to subsidise their friends in t’north, perhaps they are not really to blame. Each new dictate from central government that must be implemented by local authorities with no additional funding is in essence a funding cut. The local authorities then have to decide where they will cut their services to fund the latest wizard wheeze from central government, in the case of the flooding, the gamble to stop the level of ditch and drain maintenance did not pay off, but at the end of the day they had no choice.
The leak from the government’s Purbright Lab is sickening, I would worry if I lived near Aldermarston just in case the government’s lab there has a similar attitude to maintainance matters.
The Northern Rock matter is way over my head so I won’t comment on that, but informed commentators seem to suggest it is at least in part down to government policy, which I suppose must mean the chancellor which for the last ten years was the current PM.
Reply: Yes - and remember many of the watercourses are the responsibility of the governemnt funded Environment Agency, who admit they did not keep enough of their ditches and culverts well maintained.
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and you don’t think Gordon Brown bears any responsibility for the appearance of home grown terrorists in the UK?
Reply: I am sure the Prime Minister does not want terrorists in the UK.
The Opposition has for a long time been demanding better border controls to keep out people who do wish to harm the state, and urging more attention and budget money to intelligence gathering, as we think that is the best way to combat terrorism. There is, unfortunately, no sure way of securing a free society against all evil.
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If any one of the crises described above had happened under a Conservative Government, the media, led by the BBC, would have had a field day. “Experts” would have been wheeled out to give a five minute explanation, at the beginning of each news cast, of why the problem was due to goverment incompetence. Meanwhile a frenzy of anti-government feeling would be stirred up by commentators and government ministers would be interviewed on the Today program where they would be forced to listen to interviewers unable to disguise their sneering distain for every Conservative put before them. I know this, because it happened in 1997, and nothing has changed since.
So, I’m afraid you’re wrong Mr Redwood, Brown is in fact very lucky. He should now, by virtue of his record of failure over the last ten years, be a figure of contempt, not our Prime Minister.
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You have summarised perfectly why this Brown/Blair government of the last 10 years or so should be kicked out. They are incompetent.
They have raised and spent hundreds of billions in taxes with few, if any, proportional benefits to the country. They have shown that they do not have the ability to manage complex government institutions with their top down approach of target setting and they have made serious misjudgements in all areas of national and international policies which will take years - maybe generations - to resolve.
The sooner people can be made to see this, the sooner that the next Conservative government can start to put in place the policies that will reverse the process that Brown and his acolytes have started.
More power to your elbow, Mr Redwood!
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[...] John Redwood wrote a fantastic post today on “The four crises on Brownâ’s watch”Here’s ONLY a quick extractSome of us warned at the time - and subsequently - that taking responsibility for banking supervision and government debt management away from the Bank of England made it more likely they would mishandle money markets when conditions … [...]
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