Picking fights
It was once said of Ken Clarke that he was the sort of man who would see a fight starting on the other side of the road and cross it to join in.
John Reid is just such a politician. Within a few short weeks he has picked a fight with...
• His civil servants - dubbing the 91Èȱ¬ Office "not fit for purpose" and instituting a "heads will roll" culture.
• Judges.
• His ministerial colleagues the Attorney General and the Lord Chancellor.
• And now with senior policemen - one of whom has described him as being, in effect, blackmailed by pressure to change policy on sex offenders by the country's biggest selling paper The News of the World. (It was an extraordinary attack which you can listen to here).
And, you know what? John Reid won't mind one little bit. He believes he's standing up for the public against the establishment. He believes these are the sort of headlines that do Labour no harm at all. And he believes that it is only by distancing himself comprehensively from current policy failures that he can hang on to his job, unlike his predecessor.
Stand by for his next big fight. After 100 days in the job he will unveil his masterplan for restructuring the 91Èȱ¬ Office, rebalancing the criminal justice system and reforming the immigration service.
It's a plan that may well require more money. The problem is that the last home secretary did a deal with the chancellor over the budget for the next 3 years. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see John Reid try to re-open it. After all, there's no fight he relishes more than one with Gordon Brown himself.
I'm 
Comments
I think it is good that John Reid is willing to pick all these fights in order to do something. I do agree though that this government is influenced by the media too much and more often than not, a policy is only tackled when a problem is highlighted in the paper.
Nick
I hate to agree with John Reid (never happened before) but it stands to reason that if the Government are going to court popularity by pursuing tabloid demands it's going to cost a lot of money. The 91Èȱ¬ Office budget will therefore have to be increased - after all, we are heading for 100,000 in prison.
Lets be fair picking fights is better then losing them. Labour has so many problems, minister who pick a fight is a bit different then being beaten up.
Labour has serious problems with so much going on, the problem is that minister think we the voters are stupid. If someing is going wrong in white hall or the civil service, we know who is at fault, the minister.
Work man always blames his tools.
John Reid's a bruiser but so what? It's just so refreshing to see somebody in government actually DOING SOMETHING. He's taking action to try and sort things.....instead of just coasting along (eg. Blair, Prescott, Blunkett etc...etc...) and reacting only when it all hits the fan.
I would rather John Reid stopped posturing and simply got on with his job. When he is laying into people and departments he is stirring up problems, not solving them.
If he was doing an effective job he would shun all publicity for a few months, keep his head down and get on with sorting out the 91Èȱ¬ Office and then give a progress report (say once a quarter).
I cannot see how verbally bashing everyone solves problems. It strikes me as a stupid way to work and someone of his age and experience really should know better.
John Reid seems to relish plain talking and working an 18 hour day, but what has he actually achieved?
Can he take credit for better protection of our soldiers when he was at Defence? Cleaner hospitals as a result of his reign at Health?
Pugnacious? Absolutely.
Effective? Not much evidence so far.
Perhaps John Reid sees himself as the Mr MacKay of the cabinet and is gambling on Gordon Brown being no Fletcher to foil his plans for leadership. Back in the real world they're both Scottish and unlikely to be elected Prime Minister.
Ah yes. John Reid. The man who brought law and order to the streets of Basra. I can hardly wait.
It looks like John Reid is planning to challenge for the leadership when Blair goes - I wonder how much help he is getting from the anti-Brownites.
I still enjoy, with a smirk of amusement, John Reid's row with Jeremy Paxman over the 'attack-dog' comment. I don't see what he was complaining about, as it's a position he so obviously relishes.
Hi Nick,
We gotta ask, is all this "bluster" from the Reid just him setting out his hardman credentials, i wonder though if no.11 is worried by this rear guard "man of the people" play coming from Reid & Co for the soon to be vacant position @ no.10
even cameron must stand back in awe at the populist Reid in action ... go Reid!
I BELIEVE THAT Dr REID IS TRYING TO
DO HIS BEST, BUT THIS OLD COUNTRY HAS
BEEN LET DOWN SO MANT TIME BY
"HARD GOVERMENTS" FROM THE IRON LADY
ONWARDS, BUT NO ONE WANTS TO REALLY
"SORT" OUT THE RUBBISH THAT IS NOW
EFFECTING SO MANY PORTIONS OF OUR
NATIONAL LIFE THE BIG FLEAS HAVE
LITTLE FLEAS ALL ADDING TO THE BROTH
AS HARD AS THEY CAN.
I admit I haven't tried terribly hard but I remain astonished by the sheer moral cowardice of Reid. If he is seriously considering bringing in a 'Sara's Law' it can only be because he wants to pander to the baying of the press and, alas, to frightened and misinformed public opinion. There is nothing 'tough' about doing that. It is taking the easy option for short-term political gain. Like the prime minister he lacks the courage to speak honestly to the public about these matters. That makes him a despicable individual in my view. And if he does run for the party leadership I hope Labour Party members judge him as unfit for the task as I do.
Its clear that John Reid is starting his campaign for the party leadership early running as the man of the people against the establishment figure Gordon Brown.Couold it work I wonder
John Reid ooops sorry DOCTOR John Reid..contrary to pop opinion he has a Phd but loves the Doctor title which suited him as Health Secretary.
We hear so much about how he will do this and that knock this into shape kick butts until they squeal but the reality is that he moves jobs more quickly than most when it is impossible to master a brief which can take months on end.He is a jack of all trades and seemingly master of none. Is he disputing that he has been a sucess in ANY department ?
I defy anyone to tell me his successes except with each move
he promies the place will change..yeah right..change for the worse. My fear he is running out of jobs apart of Browns one its truly scary. He stands at the despatch box like a prize fighter jutting is neck forward as a drunk might do before a street brawler in athuggish way before telling us this dept or that is not fit for purpose. I submit Nick
that Reid is not the top politician he claims to be his role was a fire fighter but now the flames have overwhelmed him while the voters also
burn because of his vanity. There are some Ministers who are just incompetent like Geoff Buff Hoon but also likeable still and others like Reid who are also incompetent but
not very pleasant at all. Reid ought to try for a job in the Scottish Parliament rather than further reing our legal sytem here in England.
I dont think they would want him.
But you know Nick the smell of decay
is spreading now within labour a sea change is occuring and if the Polls are right there is every chance that
Labour will be swept away and Reid along with it. From Ecclestone to Hindjas from Mandelson to Robinson
to Lord levy and all the rest my Lord they make the Tories look saintly re sleaze. The Tories had sexual scandals we expect that but labour are far worse. We shall be purer than pure we are the servants of the people they are the masters..
Blair 1997.....You couldnt make it up.
Or does all this activity simply give the public a daily reminder of the horrible mess the home office is in?
But who is he really critising?
His own government created all of the badly crafted laws which the judges, civil servants, police etc are trying to implement. The public sector are hardly going to hit back with all they have to lose (knighthoods and pensions spring to mind) so they are easy targets!
But I think he's going to find it a little bit tougher than he is when he starts attacking the press. He comes across as a bit of a "thicko" anyway.
Perhaps he thinks that they will crumble like the 91Èȱ¬ did!!
Blather blather blather.
All talk and no action me thinks.
How fascinating this all is. Apart from the lack of organisation and co-ordination into the 91Èȱ¬ Office, we have all learnt a valuable lesson from this: this Government no longer worries about the electorate but what newspapers such as The Sun and The Mail will publish on their front pages.
All we need now is a campaign from either the Sun or the News of the World to bring home the troops from Iraq, and hey presto they'll be back.
Seems to me Rupert Murdoch is now in charge at No 10!!
But is he damaging his relationship with his peers for the benefit of the country or to improve his chances of taking over the top spot, when it becomes available?
Call me a New-Labour cynic, but I wouldn't mind betting it was the latter.
Reid is puffing himself up so fast and so hard that he is in danger of exploding. A favour he can do for the nation.
John Reid is a Scot, sitting for a Scottish seat. What right has he to be the 91Èȱ¬ secretary anyway? Or the Health Secretary before that? Yesterday the Scottish affairs committe at Westminster published a report drawing attention to the growing discontent within England at the unfair devolution arrangements introduced by New Labour. I note the 91Èȱ¬ has not bothered much with this, but it is a boil which badly needs lancing. John Reid and Gordon Brown can fight all they like, but neither will be acceptable as PM by most of England until they sort out the constitutional mess they created.
The man is no more than a playground bully. Blaming civil servants (and just about everyone else), while no doubt popular with many, is not going to improve morale - and it is the civil servants after all who implement ever-changing Government policy. As an ex-Communist, he has travelled one heck of a long way to New Labour's centre ground - possibly because of the whiff of power? One thing he hasn't lost is his nasty, thuggish character. There is no way he will ever be PM over a predominantly English electorate.
Nick
Interesting that the last couple of posts raise the "West Lothian Question" / a Scottish MP having responsiblility for devolved matters. A good subject for your next blog??
John Reid doesn’t need a plan. Trying to understand the root cause of failure isn’t right. Rapid response with firm rhetoric in addition to verbal attacks that blame the very people you really need to keep on-side is the plan.
Or is it the War on Terror that we won’t try to understand, will use firm rhetoric, act without thought & blame the people we need to win over? Or is that the NHS plan? Or Police force plan?
Who cares!
Also, those who say John Reid shouldn’t take orders from the News of the World should remember, the tabloids do government favours. Who sold the war by printing Blair’s fantasy stories to scare us to death? Tabloids did. Who convinced us that £300 national ID cards will scare off terrorists & secure the borders? Tabloids did. Who puts celebrity holiday snaps on the front page and footballers haircuts on pages 2, 3 & 5-20 but ignores government corruption & democracy erosion? Tabloids do.
We can’t complain if tabloids want a few favours in return. After all, rich people can buy a knighthood & a seat in the Lords with voting rights. Education curriculum is for sale so radical faith groups can peddle rubbish to our kids. Public utilities can be sold off as cash cow monopolies to extract money from an over exploited public. Contracts can be reserved at monopoly prices in return for personal undeclared cash donations. Public investments like QINetIQ can be purchased by crony Blair buddies for 10% value and resold at ten times cost, so we rob the poor to pay the rich. Foreign oil giants can benefit from our military effort by making record profits from Iraqi oil theft. Who cares about tabloids making policies?
Hell hath no fury like a politician scorned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any reason why Clarke chose to be interviewed by the 91Èȱ¬ Editor rather than the Political Editor?