In 1976, the UK suffered a severe and
prolonged period of drought.
Eventually, things got so bad that the PM at the time, James Callaghan, appointed
a Minister for Drought, Denis Howell, who apparently, amongst other things, was
ordered
by Number 10 to do a rain dance on behalf of the whole UK.
Three days later, it started raining, the UK suffered widespread flooding – and
he rapidly found himself ‘promoted’ to Minister of Floods. I’m
sure that I’m far from being alone in suspecting that neither his appointment
nor his rain dance (if he ever did it) had much to do with the change in the
weather. (In three days, the civil service had probably not even managed to
find him an office or staff, let alone research the detailed etiquette of a
rain dance.) However, appointing a minister to take specific responsibility for
a problem area on behalf of the government has become something of a fall back
position ever since. Apart from anything else, it gives the PM someone to blame
instead of having to take the flak himself.
In the light of the appalling
mismanagement, confusion, and downright lies surrounding the handling of the
Ukrainian refugee crisis, Boris Johnson has this week resorted
to the same sleight of hand. Despite the headline, he hasn’t created
a new minister at all, merely appointed one; whatever his own wishes on the
matter, creation isn’t part of his powers even under the royal prerogative. It’s
come at a heavy price to him – by choosing someone outside parliament to take
on the role of Minister for Refugees, he’s been forced to ennoble yet another
of his mates, further expanding the unelected house of parliament. No doubt the
new minister will need time to settle in, be found an office, desk, and a few
staff, and determine his terms of reference as a new sub-department is carved
out at Westminster, and all that before getting down to the job in hand.
Somehow, I doubt that he will turn out to be quite as lucky as Denis Howell;
with or without a ministerial dancing act, this is not a problem which is going
to resolve itself in three days. Still, things could be worse – Johnson could
have appointed an existing peer, such as Baron Lebedev of
Siberia, to take on the role. Now that would have shown Putin that
he means business. Whose business is a whole other question.
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