When four honours are not enough

Revolving Door keep spinning

 

Fours honours and still he forgets the rules. Some found it difficult to accept that Sir, Sir, Sir Lord O'Donnell has four honours (see previous blog). He is not the fisrt to excessively gonged. A witness to the PASC select committee elucidated.

Supplementary written evidence submitted by John Lidstone (HS 41)

In my evidence to you on Tuesday May 15th 2012 in response to question Q158 Chair:  I replied 'If you take Gus O’Donnell who has just retired as Chief Secretary to the Cabinet and head of the Civil Service, he has four gongs'. My comments were picked up by the BBC and broadcast over the air. 

I used the word 'gong' deliberately to mean "an honour, a medal or a decoration" to quote an Oxford Dictionary definition. The record books, 'Who's Who' and Debretts record Gus O'Donnell as having the following 'gongs'; GCB; KCB; CB; and a life peerage - four 'gongs'. This appears to follow a quite illogical tradition in respect of all heads of the Civil Service. To pluck two other names who have held these two offices, their 'gongs' are almost identical:  

Robert Armstrong, formerly secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service. His 'gongs': GCB; KCB; CVO; Life peerage;

Robin Butler, also a former secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service: GCB; KCB; CVO; PC; Life peerage. I have excluded his KG, this being in the personal gift of the Monarch.

This brings me to the question put to the meeting of your Select Committee on Tuesday May 22nd 2012 when you took evidence from Sir Bob Kerslake.  Q292 Paul Flynn: 'Sir Gus O'Donnell I think has four knighthoods'. Sir Bob Kerslake: ''he has not; he has two'. Paul Flynn: 'I have seen it in the papers  he has four'. Sir Bob Kerslake: 'No, of course, he is a lord as well, which is quite a separate process'.

When these types of exchanges take place and can be heard and read by the general public, they do not inspire any confidence in those who are supposed to be professionally involved in the process of sorting who gets what and whether they balance the honours quotas book.

 From PRWeek

Remember Liam Donaldson’s warning that the flu pandemic could up 65,000 people in the UK?  It didn’t. 450 died with swine flu fewer that 150 of swine flu. But the panic persuaded the Government to squander £1 billion – mostly on vaccines and anti-virals.  No great surprise that Donaldson, a year after his retirement, took a job with lobbyists who are pushing pharmaceutical drugs. He was also handed the obligatory knighthood.

 

PRWeek reported:

Commenting on Donaldson’s new job, Labour MP Paul Flynn told PRWeek: ‘This looks like another worrying example of the revolving door from independent public service to the world of commerce.’

‘There is widespread concern that former ministers, civil servants and generals swiftly metamorphose from high office into the paid servants of business, possibly after hawking around their contacts book and insider knowledge.'

Flynn, a longstanding scourge of the lobbying industry, added: ‘The greatest possible danger is that the holders of high office may be tempted to take decisions that could be influenced by the chance of retirement rewards. When crucial decisions are made, they should be judged on the public good and not on the possibility of a retirement hacienda in Spain.’

A recent report by campaign group Transparency International also criticised the so-called ‘revolving door’ between government and big business.

However, Walsh insisted that Donaldson would not be trading on his contacts developed in government.

He said: ‘Someone such as Sir Liam will tell us what works and what doesn’t. It’s a sounding board for strategy. It’s not about access. It’s about understanding the stakeholder environment and really looking at the client’s objective and making sure we help in achieving it.’

In a statement, Donaldson said: ‘I hope to be able to use my health experience to ensure that APCO continues to build its reputation for knowledge-based communication expertise in the health sector and beyond.’

 

Comments

[Patrick]

The example regarding swine flu is just one example of complete ineptitude.Governments spend fortunes of taxpayers best researching a problem.They involve a group of experts in that field that come up with solid scientific conclusions. These conclusions are then completely ignored.David Nut's sacking on drugs.100MIllion pound, 8year study by Lord Krebs on BTB are just 2 examples.

[HuwOS]

Even the revolving door idea doesn't work particularly well for this as Liam Donaldson was correct in considering a "worst case scenario" it was not inaccurate at the time it was made although it did rapidly become clear that we were not facing anything like a worst case scenario and were likely facing a situation better than even the best case scenario, primarily due to people believing that if they had a cold they should refrain from spreading it amongst their fellows. Which probably saved more "man hours" of "productivity" than any other health intervention in recent times.

It was purely the government's decision to ignore the facts as they unfolded and carry on despite all evidence, acting as if the worst case scenario had instead been a definitive and accurate prediction of the future. The Polish were in that case at least blessed with a rational and sane government, such a pity that that seems so unattainable in this country that anyone at all feels the need to look elsewhere to cast blame.

[HuwOS]

The argument you make about government reaction to the swine flu pandemic Paul is one which demonstrates that the problem was with bad government and does not successfully lay the blame at anyone else's doorstep, not the WHO and not even, for all their faults, the pharmaceutical companies.

[Paul Flynn]

UK swine flu spending = £billion plus. Poland: virtually nothing. Swine flu deaths UK 7.4 per million, Poland 4.7 per million. Polish health minister refused to buy vaccine.
Epidemiology never justified the panic.

[Kim Spence-Jones]

Suggesting that money spent in defending against flu threats is 'squandered' because a disaster did not occur is as silly as suggesting we don't need fire engines at Heathrow because in recent years they have never been called upon to extinguish a major blaze.