I reach for my gun. Dan Kitwood - WPA Pool/Getty
“When I hear the word culture”, Josef Goebbels is supposed to have said, “I reach for my gun.” Boris Johnson, on the other hand, merely reaches for whoever he reckons will most rub the so-called metropolitan liberal elite up the wrong way.
One would have thought that Oliver Dowden was doing a fairly good job of pursuing the Government’s forever “war on woke”. But obviously not. The reshuffle saw Olive, as the former Statues (sorry, Culture) Secretary (now party co-Chairman) is known to his friends, summarily replaced by the preternaturally plain-speaking Nadine Dorries. She was known by her enemies as the woman who once suggested equal marriage was something which only “metro elite gay activists” aspired to and called Messrs Cameron and Osborne “two posh boys who don’t know the price of milk”.
Whether Ms Dorries, before accepting his commission, quizzed Mr Johnson on precisely how much he paid when he last popped out for a pint of semi-skimmed is, sadly, not recorded, although, if precedent is anything to go by, we will eventually find out. Indeed, many of the most delicious moments in contemporary histories of recent premierships are provided by their accounts of the often cack-handed attempts of their hapless heroes to inject fresh blood and get rid of dead wood.
Normally, it’s the sackings that afford the most entertainment: May’s “elder sister” slaying of George Osborne is an absolute classic of the genre — not least because it came back to bite her big time when the former Chancellor became editor of the Evening Standard, from which perch he took great delight in proving that revenge is indeed a dish best served cold (and, in his case, that meant very, very cold indeed).
This time around, however, it’s the appointments that are more intriguing. In part, that’s because the reshuffle’s two most obvious victims were (a) long-destined for the chop and (b) not particularly interesting or heavyweight politicians.
It would be hard, for instance, to find many people sad to see Gavin Williamson depart Education after what teachers, students and pupils (not to mention their parents) have been put through during the pandemic. And the now-former Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick (cruelly dubbed “Robert Generic” by his detractors), was better known for bending lockdown rules, greenlighting a Tory donor’s questionable construction project, bunging big grants to towns with Tory MPs, and going on telly to defend the indefensible than he was for building more houses.
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SubscribeThe only saving grace in this sea of incompetence and half-decent mediocrity is the realisation that the alternative is even worse.
Can you imagine a government of Starmer, Abbot, Rayner and co? Too horrible to contemplate.
Something is, however, going on in the Labour Party which I wish someone at Unherd would take up: there have been resignations and changes which are apprently linked to conflict sover trans gender issues (and perhaps more generally ‘woke’ culture): https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/14/labour-shadow-equalities-secretary-quits-minister-marsha-de-cordova?utm_term=200740d17d4f966fff2e08be6159fb66&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email
It really doesn’t matter who is PM or in the cabinet because effectively we have had the same useless, lying governments since Blair took over.
I think you possibly mean civil service
Aah! good point, well made.
Having a narrow choice of party MPs to take extremely short contracts at senior executive level in anything mildly important is an absolutely ludicrous way to operate. This system is all about maintaining imaginary roles for our wannabe aristocracy – it has nothing to do with good management, democracy or even common sense. The cost to our nation in the modern era must have beeen catastrophic.
If Johnson had any true grit then he would have sacked himself.
but who would he have replaced himself with? Who is there?
I was thinking more along the lines of:
He can’t sack himself because he is not in charge; Carrie Symonds is.
i am surprised Patel is still there, yes she makes the right wing press ecsatic with her pronouncements but nothing she does changes anything, total windbag.
I think it’s the Home Office (un)civil servants that keep blocking her efforts. I doubt anyone else would keep doggedly trying to make them do their actual jobs, most would give up in despair.
I think she’s actually not very bright. I saw her at a hustings in her first election and was deeply unimpressed. But I think she’s also quite tough, and brave
And on a point of pedantry, the quote is from a play by Hanns Johst – “When I hear the word culture …, I release the safety on my Browning!”Hanns Johst – Wikipedia
I’m fairly sure that it was Goring who said ‘When I hear the word democracy I reach for my gun.’ Sounds are credible to me. I can’t think that Goebbels didn’t enjoy culture, especially as a hanger-on to a lover of Wagner.
Thank you. You got there before me. Though it’s always a tricky one to correct as it can sound like you’re defending Goebbels
Working in the property industry, I can see why Gove was sent there. Jenrick was lucky not to end up in Court for corruption over the decision to consent a development by a Tory donor to avoid an increased Community Infrastructure Levy. Gove is one of the few who could sort out complexities of the planning system, that has been tinkered with by many people over the last 20 years, whether he manages to do it is an interesting question.
Any Minister who comes close to ‘sorting out’ Spanish practices becomes instantly un-liked and criticised by those who lose their ‘perks’. Gove was willing to sort out Education but got side-lined by pressure from the Blob. I predict it will be the same for his new role… except the property industry does not attract the same adulation, so he may just achieve something after all.
Getting a little bored of the failed Guardian writers that dominate UnHerd.
If I wanted to read petulant lines like “seen by those who get off on Global Britain” I’d read the Guardian for free rather than pay for an UnHerd subscription.
Perhaps I am being unfair: there are some genuinely good writers at the Guardian who wouldn’t sink to such infantile dribble as that.
I’m happy to have my views challenged by opposing perspectives, but I thought the idea was to have lots of those.
Get that back or lose this subscriber.
Well said. These minor and petulant academics are rather boring.
Where have all the statesmen gone? Where are all the politicians that solidly knew their craft, their limitations and more importantly spoke pout for what they genuinely believed in, whatever their political allegiance? This current mob are still wet behind the ears, and twice as daft.
I think the media has a lot to do with it. The Tony Blair arose in the shadow of 24×7 media and style over substance became the norm. Modern politicians (need to) care too much about media headlines, which can be artificially inflated by the media depending on their own agenda, whether it’s ideology, circulation, or both. Once they come gumming for you, eventually you’re toast, but as Brexit and 2029 show, the public are starting to cotton on. The media is NOT the public, and politicians had better start realising that. When Boris became PM and before the pandemic, Boris started bypassing the Beeb and Sky and Channel 4 by doing Ask the PM broadcasts on YouTube. Going direct. No way to be ‘misquoted’ by the press. I thought this was smart and shows Boris has an instinct for politics he is not given enough credit for. I also think the proportion of politicians who’ve had ‘proper jobs’ or who have come from a working class background has massively shrunk in recent years, particularly in the Labour Party, alongside a similar shrinking in the ‘gentleman politicians’ of old, who came from the aristocracy but who went into public service with a sense of ‘noblesse oblige’. Those men cane from a time when a university education actually meant something and grew out of a tradition of sharp debating skills, a classical education and a Victorian notions of duty and service to the realm.
That’s my take on it anyway.