Every year the press run a story about who has been “left in charge” while the PM takes a summer holiday. Of course, its barely a story – tolerated by Downing Street, one suspects, because it distracts attention from the fact that the Prime Minister is actually taking a holiday – since in this age of instant, global communication for civilians, let alone governments, the notion that the reins of power are ever truly transferred to anyone is ridiculous. This year the particular spin is a rather brutal comment by a former senior Army officer, though given the material that the Deputy Prime Minister seems to have provided for him to react too, one can’t help feeling that as inevitable as this story is, the DPM has only himself to blame for much of the form.
Reproduced, merely to preserve the venom of the comments, is what Colonel Collins told the BBC. If anyone needs a lesson in why one should never jest about one’s own incompetence, he is advised to study the following carefully:
I have to say that the prospect of John Prescott running the country in the absence of Tony Blair is a prospect that fills me with horror,” he told the BBC’s Daily Politics.
A man who on the BBC last week by his own admission struggles with a paper and pencil, and is incompetent by his own admission with technology, running two complex wars, and a number of other complex issues in the nation leaves me wondering who actually is running the nation.
Is it the civil service behind the scenes? Or… this man who by his own admission is not up to the job?
It does fill me with horror, and I feel sorry for the troops who are deployed at the risk of their lives on his behalf.
One Comment
Of course, the whole idea that the nation needs “running” is an interesting one.
Most of what one would consider the running of the nation – commerce, education, procreation etc – go on without the need for any day to day intervention of the PM. That doesn’t stop Tony from trying though.
Keeping the government running is a different matter however. Perhaps he should put more attention to that rather than meddling ever more closely into peoples lives.