Within the space of four months the Home Office has lost three of the most senior people on whom it relied for security. Sir Paul Stephenson & John Yates (Commissioner & Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police) resigned in July after criticism over the News of the World phone hacking business, now Brodie Clark, the head of the border force, has resigned as well over something or the other.
Home Secretary Theresa May took the unusual step of addressing all staff in the Home Office to try to restore their confidence after Brodie Clark’s departure. Mrs May thanked staff for their hard work & insisted that she appreciated all their efforts before encouraging them to keep up their good work.
One official said: ‘It was the Home Secretary saying that she loves us really.’
Coincidentally I have just been reading Robert Hardman’s book The Queen – not something I might normally have been tempted by but I was intrigued by a comment that this is now a must-read for ministers, the Queen is the latest management guru …
One quote from the book: ‘You can’t do anything in the short term. It’s all about relationships. That’s what the. Queen has been doing for 60 years … the more you do it, the greater your ability to lead, to change, to manage, to listen, to learn … ‘
And, by another coincidence, ‘It’s all about relationships’ was one of the lessons which Labour guru Philip Gould tried to encourage.
Of course politicians are, by definition, only in a department for the short term, & it is very dangerous for them to steer the tricky course between on the one hand stamping your authority on the organisation , identifying & removing the problems which may flow from people who have just grown stale & set in their ways from a lifetime of service & developing expertise, & on the other relying on those who not only might know better than you but also have a lot of friends in the organisation who might believe that too.
