It wasn't so much what Short said (although I enjoyed her combat with Sir Martin Gilbert), it was her comments about the lack of cabinet consultation in the run-up to the Iraq conflict and Blair's disdain for the full need of collegallity in government. Put simply it's been mentioned before where Tony Blair is concerned.
That's not a good state of affairs to be in and hopefully Iraq is a classic example of why it is wrong. Some Prime Ministers, such as Margaret Thatcher, saw cabinet run by dictatorship as a virtue (and I can understand the mentality behind that), but this is wrong. You have to work on trust and you have to be aware that you are human and that sometimes your own instincts may not be right on a certain matter. It's all to do with human nature and living in a Democracy.
If the last few years have shown anything, it's the need for a return to cabinet government and a stronger House of Commons. We cannot allow a system to continue (irrespective of political parties), where blind loyalty is rewarded and criticism, however constructive, leads to punishment and political isolation. Yes troublemakers need to be brought up short, yes we need fellow comrades we can depend on, but not to the extent of blindness where Common Sense can sometimes be ignored. As Callaghan said in Peter Hennessey's book on Prime Ministers, cabinet by dictatorship comes to an end sooner or later, and Callaghan was a very canny political operator.
1 comment:
Don't forget - we don't actually live in a democracy. We vote someone in once every 5 years and then they do as they please or as their party instructs them through whips until the next election.
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