Some years ago, when I was working as an
IT Project Manager, I went for an interview for a similar job with another
company. From their advert, they seemed to be seeking exactly the experience
which I could offer – a match which turned out to be far from accidental. At
the interview, it rapidly became clear that they were looking to do business
with my, then, current employer, and weren’t in the least interested in what I
thought was my brilliant skillset and experience in the field, only in who I
knew and what doors I could open for them. The advert had been worded specifically
to attract applicants from the staff of the company which employed me at the time. Charitably, I marked it down to
experience and a misunderstanding, and moved on.
I doubt that there was anything as formal
as an interview involved when David Cameron was appointed to his nice little
earner at Greensill. But whatever appointment processed was used, he can surely
have been under no delusion that he was being sought out for any presumed
skills or experience in the world of finance, because even he must be
sufficiently self-aware to realise that he possesses neither. They wanted him –
and appointed him – for one thing only: his contacts in government and his
supposed ability as a consequence to get the company preferential access and preferential
treatment. His messages
to the Chancellor, his cosy
chat with the Health Secretary – this bypassing of official channels in
pursuit of favours was exactly what he was being paid for, and he seems to have
been quite assiduous in carrying out his duties, even if, ultimately, rather
less than entirely successful.
This is, of course, as my own experience
on a much smaller scale attests, simply the way things work. It’s not the
exception, it’s the norm. Mutual back scratching and the Old Boy network still
hold sway over vast areas of business and politics in the UK. The really
strange thing is that so many people seem to believe that the Cameron affair is
some sort of newsworthy exception, and that meritocracy is the norm. But the
only thing that’s truly different about the current government is that they’re
so blatant and shameless about it all.
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