I’ll keep this short (small mercies and all that). But further to my piece earlier today about the supposed gaffe by Boris Johnson over Saudi Arabia, which actually involved him using his brain and speaking the truth, the thought forms that Theresa May’s Number 10 is taking one hell of a risk with the way it keeps on trashing ministers or declining to defend them.
Boris has been slapped down again, with Number 10 saying his rather sensible view is not that of the government, a needless distancing that he won’t forget. It is all insufferably British, from the precious Establishment annoyance that someone, Boris, has publicly spoken the truth, to the way in which assorted teeth-sucking analysts have gone around today saying we must be supine to the sensitive Saudis, a regime that is rough enough to execute its own citizens.
Meanwhile, parts of the BBC are treating the daft imbroglio as though it a re-run of the Suez crisis. They could not have done that if Number 10 simply shrugged or said the Foreign Secretary is allowed to discuss these matters. They didn’t. They publicly squashed him, again.
Equally, when the Governor of the Bank of England recently tried to help May, by pointing out the truth that the City of London is the capital of the eurozone and the EU depends on it – to make the eurozone giant debt machine go round – Number 10 still managed to trigger a stupid row by knocking back a subsequent unremarkable comment Carney made about firms wanting information on Brexit when it is available. Perfectly reasonable, and met with iciness from Number 10, thus eclipsing his earlier helpful intervention and encouraging split stories. Who’s dictating these duff lines that are stirring up trouble and dropping ministers and public officials in it?
If May’s Number 10 doesn’t ever defend ministers, and humiliates them, then who, when the going gets rough on Brexit or a crisis to come, will defend May’s Number 10?
One is not supposed to say this, of course. There is a climate of fear and we’re in that zone (many of us have seen it with Blair, Brown and Cameron, although the latter was by far the most relaxed, to his credit) in which ministers and advisers are ordered to not say anything interesting or be seen with journalists. It seems particularly bad this time, however. Usually level-headed, sensible people seem quite paranoid about what will happen to them if Number 10 find they have been using their brain in public. It was reported that the Prime Minister has ordered a tough new approach to leaks. News which leaked. It always does.
This is basic Number 10 stuff. Excessive paranoia and control-freakery never – ever – works for long and all it does is create bad blood and a future communications catastrophe. Someone always talks, and there are so many journalists and advisers and officials that you can’t round them all up and get them to print Theresa May press releases:
“Theresa May has announced that it is to early to comment on what kind of weather we are having. The Prime Minister said that she is always very clear on this. We will have weather. It will be British weather. And we will make a success of it.”
The lockdown approach also deprives the government of information. Proper, frank conversations between advisers and journalists, and ministers and hacks, not only get the government view across. A smart adviser is the eyes and ears for a minister or the centre, Number 10, picking up insights, gossip and useful information.
Personally, I’m not badly disposed to May’s administration. Really. I’ve got a piece in the works on her extraordinary popularity and why, if her luck holds, it can remake the British electoral map. But if she does not get the basics right, and continues to alienate ministers in this fashion, and pursues a mistaken approach to media, she’ll reap a whirlwind if her popularity dips.
