I'm sorry, I completely disagree.
- Firstly, the story was fourth-hand hearsay. If Blunkett had any serious concerns, his first action could and should have been to ask of the tens of thousands of security services staff to check up on this story. to establish its veracity before taking it to the PM.
- Secondly, it's clearly an archetypal urban legend. I actually hadn't heard that story, but as soon as I read the diary entry I recognised the type - my first thought was "Surely he's winding us up?". Possibly I'm just cleverer than him (actually, that doesn't sound too hard). The astonishing thing is that he clearly still doesn't realise how dumb that makes him look...
- Thirdly, I'd expect the head of the UK's security services - the man responsible, scary though it sounds, for keeing us safe - to actually have some judgement, rather than being fundamentally gullible as hell. If he believed that, what else did he believe? (The words "45 minutes" come to mind for some reason... )
- Fourthly, "David Blunkett did the right thing in passing the message on to people better able to gauge its merit" - no, he didn't, he ran straight to Blair to try to impress him with his contacts and knowledge, like a little kid trying to impress teacher with an apple. I still hope Blair was just humouring him...
And I just heard on the radio that Blunkett The Gullible is reading his flippin' book all next week on R4. Fantastic.
The main problem for a politician is to get him/herself elected in the first place. There are a certain set of skills in their arsenal to achieve this end, being a good orator (how Prescott got past this one I'll never know), looking good, smiling a lot, being able to kiss other people's babies etc. Unfortunately these skills are not what's required to actually govern the country, and it logically follows that anyone capable of getting themselves elected are not suited to the job they've just got.
The equivalent for mortal men would be for me to pass an interview by showing I could set out a complicated spreadsheet in excel then be expected to dance with the Bolshoi....
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