Monday, October 22, 2012
Managing crises
It is in the best interests of politcians not to give the impression that running the country is anything like that porrtrayed on 'The Thick of it', if only. Today's Telegraph takes that narrative the other way with the revelation that one of the Prime Minister’s key advisers has admitted that most of his time is spent on “day-to-day crisis management”:
In his first interview, Oliver Dowden, David Cameron’s deputy chief of staff who oversees domestic policy, disclosed that he was “surprised on a day-to-day basis” by the news agenda.
The admission will add to concerns that the Prime Minister’s office is “dysfunctional” and unable to influence events following the resignation of key members of staff.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that several members of the Cabinet are now privately giving warnings that the growing allegations of government incompetence will undermine the Conservatives’ re-election efforts.
One Cabinet minister said that Mr Cameron needed to “sharpen and harden” the Downing Street operation as the Conservatives would be judged on “competence, not compassion”.
My suspicion ias that Mr. Dowden is just being unusually honest and that the situation he describes is no different to that faced by any other government. He may wish to reflect however, that his honesty has just added yet another crisis to those that will need to be managed.
In his first interview, Oliver Dowden, David Cameron’s deputy chief of staff who oversees domestic policy, disclosed that he was “surprised on a day-to-day basis” by the news agenda.
The admission will add to concerns that the Prime Minister’s office is “dysfunctional” and unable to influence events following the resignation of key members of staff.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that several members of the Cabinet are now privately giving warnings that the growing allegations of government incompetence will undermine the Conservatives’ re-election efforts.
One Cabinet minister said that Mr Cameron needed to “sharpen and harden” the Downing Street operation as the Conservatives would be judged on “competence, not compassion”.
My suspicion ias that Mr. Dowden is just being unusually honest and that the situation he describes is no different to that faced by any other government. He may wish to reflect however, that his honesty has just added yet another crisis to those that will need to be managed.
