Raab

I look back on my ministerial career with great affection. I thoroughly enjoyed my close relationship with my private office of six civil servants and my wider interaction with the Civil Service generally. I don’t recall ever having a cross word. Perhaps I was just fortunate, or maybe I’m looking back with rose- tinted spectacles.
I do recall however, two occasions when my staff went to great effort to persuade me not to do something that I was determined to do. Of course, when it became clear that I was so determined, they quite properly facilitated the decision that I had made. I have no doubt that on both occasions I was right, and that the outcome was successful. I speculate, but I always suspected that the inability of my officials to persuade me not to persist in my intention, was judged a failure on their part, by their superiors.
Dominic Raab’s experience in government may have been a very different, but he has my support. I really wish that the PM had refused his resignation. My reading of report is that he is very largely exonerated, and on the two counts on which he is criticised, they both, in my estimate, fall below the threshold for resignation. On the contrary, in the circumstances, Raab’s reaction was entirely understandable.
Bullying should always be rooted out. That’s why, when I was a schoolmaster, the cane was our first resort when it came to bullying. I fear however, that there is a danger that the pendulum has swung too far the other way and that demanding exacting standards in the workplace is becoming impossible. As a consequence we are becoming less and less efficient -something that constituents are constantly drawing to my attention – and so proceeding, we will become ungovernable.