Never, we were always told on newspapers, put a question mark in a headline unless the answer is contained in the text beneath. I’m breaking that rule not only because this is digital, not newspapers, and the world has moved on. I am also genuinely baffled by the behaviour of Theresa May’s team in one vital respect. Are they trying to do in the Chancellor or is Number 10 and its press machine just making a chaotic adjustment to life under the new regime?
In slapping him down in a humiliating fashion as Team Theresa did today (scotching Chancellor Philip Hammond’s sensible suggestion that the government was considering removing students from the migration statistics) were they putting him in his place or merely over-reacting because of a tantrum by some powerful advisor?
I do not know the answer, and I bet that those involved do not know the answer either. The government is deep in Chinese whispers and double bluff territory, where tired people who do not yet know how to run the country are making basic mistakes in an effort to send out “I’m in charge” vibes to their colleagues. We can only be days or weeks away from some brave political correspondent at Westminster blowing the gaff on what is going on behind the scenes…
One hears strange rumours, in the way that one used to hear rumours before the gaff was blown after the 1997 election on the serious tensions between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. This is different though. Theresa May and Philip Hammond were supposed to be allies, two grown-ups who could rise above the Brexit battling of the Tory boys to induce stability and secure a sensible compromise with the EU.
Instead, they seem – at the instigation of Number 10 – to be heading for a car crash. The country and the Tory party are in the passenger seats and a smash will not end well. Undermining a Chancellor is nuts even in normal times and these are not normal times.
Think of the office of Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England, also being undermined, as the economic equivalent of the famous ravens at the Tower of London. They fly away, the Tower collapses. Lose a Chancellor and a Governor, the government’s credibility collapses. Can’t May’s team see how dangerous all this stuff with Hammond is? Or are they hypnotised by their opinion poll lead? I’ll report back when I know more.
