Another great piece. But devil's advocate (and she is the devil)...at this risk of moronical/ethical relativism, haven't we always hated Home Secretaries? Help me out here, I'm scrolling through recent history. David Blunkett and Michael Howard spring to mind. I definitely hated them. But Ken Clarke and Jack Straw were good guys, right? …
Another great piece. But devil's advocate (and she is the devil)...at this risk of moronical/ethical relativism, haven't we always hated Home Secretaries? Help me out here, I'm scrolling through recent history. David Blunkett and Michael Howard spring to mind. I definitely hated them. But Ken Clarke and Jack Straw were good guys, right? Were they liked in that role at the time? God I want to live in the early 2000s again, not least because Twitter hadn't been invented and my hips didn't hurt. Here's a lovely trip to the happy times, when "libertarian" didn't mean alt-right arsehole.
Yes that's something poisonous about the combination of the press, the brief and the department which conspires to turn anyone in the position into their worst possible self. But in ie Straw's case, that's coming from a relatively high base of competence and decency. With Braverman...
I remember that people called him Jackboots Straw.
The realignment of the Home Office and the Lord Chancellor's Department into the remainder of the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, partly on the back of Charles Clarke (I think) calling the HO not fit for purpose, seemed like a good idea at the time, but list of people who've been Justice Secretary isn't a list of people I have positive feelings about, and it seems to have somehow made the Home Office worse.
There definitely seems to be a culture problem that poisons the mind of _anyone_ who becomes Home Secretary, though it doesn't seem like Patel or Braverman needed that much poisoning.
The Home Office needs to go - it would probably need to result in a shuffling of other departments, and I don't fully know what to replace it with, but it needs to be burned to the ground and something better put in its place.
Another great piece. But devil's advocate (and she is the devil)...at this risk of moronical/ethical relativism, haven't we always hated Home Secretaries? Help me out here, I'm scrolling through recent history. David Blunkett and Michael Howard spring to mind. I definitely hated them. But Ken Clarke and Jack Straw were good guys, right? Were they liked in that role at the time? God I want to live in the early 2000s again, not least because Twitter hadn't been invented and my hips didn't hurt. Here's a lovely trip to the happy times, when "libertarian" didn't mean alt-right arsehole.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2000/feb/11/highereducation.politicalnews
Yes that's something poisonous about the combination of the press, the brief and the department which conspires to turn anyone in the position into their worst possible self. But in ie Straw's case, that's coming from a relatively high base of competence and decency. With Braverman...
I remember that people called him Jackboots Straw.
The realignment of the Home Office and the Lord Chancellor's Department into the remainder of the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, partly on the back of Charles Clarke (I think) calling the HO not fit for purpose, seemed like a good idea at the time, but list of people who've been Justice Secretary isn't a list of people I have positive feelings about, and it seems to have somehow made the Home Office worse.
There definitely seems to be a culture problem that poisons the mind of _anyone_ who becomes Home Secretary, though it doesn't seem like Patel or Braverman needed that much poisoning.
The Home Office needs to go - it would probably need to result in a shuffling of other departments, and I don't fully know what to replace it with, but it needs to be burned to the ground and something better put in its place.