THE TELEGRAPH: An astonishing and deeply damaging attack on Gordon Brown's "insulting" treatment of fellow cabinet ministers and his fitness to be Prime Minister is made today by the country's former top civil servant.
The day before the Chancellor delivers his 11th and almost certainly final Budget, Lord Turnbull accuses him of exhibiting a "Stalinist ruthlessness" in government, belittling his cabinet colleagues whom the Treasury treats with "more or less complete contempt".
In a newspaper interview, Lord Turnbull, permanent secretary to the Treasury for four years under Mr Brown before becoming cabinet secretary in 2002, accused the prime minister-in-waiting of a "very cynical view of mankind and his colleagues".
"He cannot allow them any serious discussion about priorities. His view is that it is just not worth it and 'they will get what I decide'. And that is a very insulting process," Lord Turnbull said.
"Do those ends justify the means? It has enhanced Treasury control, but at the expense of any government cohesion and any assessment of strategy. You can choose whether you are impressed or depressed by that, but you cannot help admire the sheer Stalinist ruthlessness of it all." Top civil servant attacks ‘Stalinist’ Brown’ by George Jones
Mark Alexander
9 comments:
Hardly earth shattering news here guys. It takes a Lord and the Daily Telegraph to tell the elites what us plebs had figured out a long, long time ago; it's written in his facial expressions, as much as in his pronouncements. He's just an extremely arrogant bully, without much talent, but graced with the good fortune to fall in with the right crowd of like minded Marxists, at the right time. How anybody could consider this blusterer as Prime Ministerial material, baffles the mind. And the argument that he hasn't messed up the economy is pure BS, just wait till NuLabour are out of power, and the truth will spill out all across the country, as the true consequences of Gordon's profligacy will be realized. It always helps when you have a willing media covering your tracks in pursuit of the same agenda.
A nation in denial, or at best, asleep; it sure has made it an easy road for Gordon, but what happens when reality hits?
Rustresistance:
I hadn't noticed that you had done so, so that must have been a case of two great minds thinking alike! :-)
Just Another Richard:
I agree that it is not "earth shattering news", but I do think it is interesting that someone so high up in the pecking order should be so forthcoming about someone like that.
I think the gentleman that has blown the whistle on the whispered doubts over Gordon's character has been very brave and has done the UK a favour.
I hope his pension is intact!
He was "Cabinet Secretary!"
If he doesn't speak from direct observation of Gordonski, then who could?
I expect the Blairites to make use of this to manouver a favoured candidate for PM into position.
JaR, you are right about reading it in his ace.
There lies the story of a bullied boy turned bully by his friends, and having got power, he can stand aloof and pretend his bullying is just "suitable medicine."
Sad.
The economic woes will be apparent soon enough, but by then Gordon will be an appointed Lord, blustering away in that other place.
Mark, the fact that someone so high up the pecking order has ratted on the true nature of Gordon is not really very surprising, after all, rats bite each other all the time.
Sorry guys, my cynicism meter pegged out at max where politicians are concerned a looooooong time ago. I'm with Hilaire Belloc with his epitaph to a politician -
"Here richly, and with ridiculous display,
the politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged."
Mirrorman - Yes you're right, old Gordo will be richly enthroned in ermine and totally oblivious to the chaos his fiscal policies have created for the masses...ah, sweet oblivion Gordon; enjoy it while you may, but if your friends from the religion of peace continue on their aspiring ways, the flames of the ensuing civil strife, will lick your boots too, my good lord...ermine robes or no.
I don't think it will take too many more sparks to set the dry tinder aflame. Gordon and friends banning the BNP (almost a given), or the granting of greater autonomous rights to various Muslim organizations at the expense of the indigenous population; possibly another bombing or two of the locals by our fully integrated fellow citizens who contribute so much to our rich cultural diversity. Then I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of any politician of the last 20 or 30 years. The anger is palpable if only simmering now, but for how much longer(?) I often wondered how the French could descend into such brutality and bloodlust as 'the terror' consumed the elites of that age, I no longer do, for now I see it clearly....betrayal engenders the most savage of reactions for it reaches right into the core of our tolerance and rips out the heart of compassion and in so doing it exposes raw anger, and so the brutality becomes inevitable.
Is it inevitable, well given the prevailing order, I can't see any alternative scenarios arising. Can you... NuLabour and friends having an epiphany, that road to Damascus moment for Gordo ...not bloody likely. The Green knight upon his trusty steed 'Watermelon' - well, we might all die of laughter. The Mandarins of Brussels spotting the advancing danger to their own pious hides - I don't think so, arrogance comes fully equipped with blinkers, think of it as a feebe. If we are to avoid the looming disaster, someone better speak up soon.
Some friends have called me an alarmist for my views and predictions. I think history will be on my side, not theirs, though I take no consolation in that. In a perverse way, we can gain an insight into human understanding and motivation regarding our descent towards war. The follies on display, speak volumes as to the various and sundry characters who chose this moment to step onto Shakespeare's great stage...we are witness to every scope of villainy know to man, the snakes hold the stage now, but for how long? Events and circumstance will throw up new faces. Of one thing we can be sure, when the savagery commences, we will witness a scurrying of rats, not seen since the Fall of Rome, hopefully without the same final outcome, as scurrilous persons of every persuasion jump ship. Mark them well, for they need to be held to account for this tragedy, none of this wandering offstage to die peacefully in their beds on some distant night...not this time. The high offices of state come with heavy burdens and even heavier tolls, as the consequences of failure affect the lives of millions, how much longer shall we endure the depredations of vain and shallow creatures, serving nothing but failed ideologies or self-aggrandizing egos. Wishful thinking and good intentions are no longer acceptable, for quite simply, too much, far too much is at stake.
As our anger increases with each passing betrayal, and our understanding of the mechanisms by which the prevailing order have insinuated themselves into power, and how they cynically manipulate the news in order to maintain those powers, even to the extent that they will willingly destroy our nations in order to continue in their designs and comforts; our tolerance evaporates that little bit more, until the unthinkable becomes not just a transient thought, but an unavoidable necessity.
Then there are the countless fools, so lost in their own moral vanity, that they fail to see the obvious, that morality does not operate in the confines of an emotionally fabricated universe of wishful thinking, but in the human interaction in a very real world, totally inured to individual perceptions, fabricated to bolster those longed for verities of the pacifist world view. The bland assertion that, "I am virtuous" does not make one moral or virtuous, but more truthfully leaves one immured in a pool of moral turpitude of one's own devising, as that person relies on his own subjective opinions or more probably the accolades of unctuous sycophants who infest the corridors of power, to maintain that illusion, regardless of the consequent outcome of ill conceived ideas and prognostications, because men are so pleased with their own affairs, deceiving themselves about them, they continue on their courses, undeterred by facts and events.
All is vanity, and all events, facts, tragedies, and disasters, fall in abasement at its feet, lest it disturb that perception of great moral virtue. Let me assure you, your enemies do not admire your virtue, they despise it, your friends do not value it unless it can serve their convenience, and finally reality finds it a most contemptible emptiness; so disabuse yourself of its perceived great worth, for in times such as these, in times of conflict, it is a curse not a blessing that will see your demise, not your salvation, as it grants so much leeway to your adversaries, and hinders so much of your own room to maneuver and react. Virtue may be a noble attribute, but only in times of peace and prosperity; at any other time, it becomes a trap for the unwary.
Our great dilemma in the present time is to find a leader, who has the strength of a lion, the cunning of a fox, the attributes of a prince, and the patience of Job and the courage and nerve of a mongoose. But where and how. For one thing, he/she would have to engender a sense of respect in his/her followers...respect for a politician I hear you say -Ha! Given the propensity of political elites to buy their power at the cost of integrity, rather than earn respect by great endeavors, small wonder that few will willingly follow their lead, or accord them any real respect. Who would follow a Tony or a Gordon into the lions den, knowing full well, that should they survive the encounter, their reward for their sacrifice would be a stab in the back at the earliest convenience to serve their masters ends. People do not follow masters, they follow leaders, to wit Winston Churchill or Napoleon Bonaparte or Adolph Hitler. Winston needs no qualification, Napoleon is too far off in history to seem relevant to the modern mind, but Hitler is a trickier subject. Now I know what you will say...Hitler, that monster...well yes, yes he was a monster, and no we do not need another one like him, but lost in all the rhetoric of his dastardliness, is the plain fact that Hitler was a natural leader in the sense that he could sway peoples perceptions of their own destiny and worth. Though he was ruthless and cruel, that aspect of his character was hidden from the vast majority of the German populace for much of his period in power. He has been so thoroughly demonized by all and sundry, the actual lessons to be learned from his rise to power and his manipulation of popular perception have been totally overlooked. Remember, before the war, he had many, many admirers in the Western democracies, that was not by accident, and it was not entirely due to the fawning sycophants of totalitarianism either. He really did raise Germany from the pits of despair to the height of potential greatness, only to sacrifice it all on grandiose dreams of conquest and glory; while his methodology was obviously venal, that doesn't explain how popular he was amongst the general population, which afforded him the power and authority with which he wreaked such havoc. Maybe one of the most astute lessons to be learned is that people, when they are down and destitute will willingly place power into the hands of someone who has a vision that they can articulate in a manner that resonates with the populace, even if that articulation hides a great lie. Don't forget, his ruthless means in dealing with adversaries was often seen as an attribute, for those that fell victim to his brutality were often perceived as deserving of their fates. Consider now, how we view some of the more, erm...flamboyant members of our own societies, who engender our approbation for one reason or another. The point I am trying to make here is not to resurrect Adolph from his deserved position in the lowest pit of hell, but to point out that there are lessons to be learned, and not just negative ones from history. We desperately need someone who can reach out and touch the people, for there are no institutions from which will arise our salvation, for they have either been destroyed or corrupted. So unless we are all to wait for the coming anarchy, and the consequent reduction of society to a million Mogadishus, that Columbia professor Genova's wet dream, then we must hope for a savior. Of course we could all get off our butts and associate, but that would require a collective resolve, something we appear to be not very good at!
Thanks for your great and insightful comment, JAR. You have made several good and valid points here.
The tools of control are most definitely in place and being added to everyday.
Whoever grasps those tools and uses them without compunction will be a hard man to move. There is no guarantee that even the veneer of democracy that we profess is secure enough not to be twisted out of shape and bent to the will of one who is so determined. - rustresistance
You are so right with these words, for they echo those of George Washington, in the first part of his farewell address...
"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you properly estimate the immense value of your national union, to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for its preservation with a jealous anxiety; discountenancing what ever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
(Break)
Let me now warn you in the most solemn manner, against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.It exists under different shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed. But in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissensions, which in different ages and countries, has perpetuated the most horrid enormities, is itself a most frightful despotism. But this leads, at length, to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.
As can be seen, he could have been talking of events of our own daily political experiences, the pointers are all there; however,do we have the resolve, the fortitude, to stand firm against the excesses of ambition, yet perceptive enough to find and support a strong leader, to direct us out of this present danger. It is a difficult balancing act to be sure. But one I feel we must seek, lest in our endless bickering we allow fools, frauds, and charlatans, free reign to rape and plunder us. In short, we need Machiavelli's Prince. Now I know the preceding statement goes against the grain, especially of minds democratically inclined, but we need a voice of sanity to stamp authority upon the direction of public discourse, preferably in the mold of Cincinnatus. Our party divisions right now are so sectarian, we endanger our very future. A consensus continues to elude us, even as the danger increases. Defense by comity in times of peril is a recipe for conflicting actions and mixed messages.
Whoops! comity should be committee. Brain running away too much enthusiasm there!
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