The resignation of David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, in protest over the 42-day detention vote in Parliament, was followed by a number of stories about his relationship with party leader David Cameron.
Both insist they’ve not fallen out and not rowed about policy. But once the bizarre specter of David Davis running for his own seat is over, I could not help but think that one narrative would remain; namely, that David Cameron runs the Tories with a tight-nit clique of friends, which outsiders – even Shadow Cabinet Ministers – find hard to penetrate.
My point here is not to accuse the Tory leader of being a toff. He may or may not be, but I don’t really care. Rather, my point is that at a time when the Prime Minister is clearly failing to deal with the complexity and speed of modern policy-making in part because he clings to a small tight-knit clique of allies, it would seem that the Tory leader risks doing much the same.
If true, this sits uneasily with the growing complexity and rapidity of contemporary policy challenges. In today’s world, policy-makers need to find ways to open policy processes, include stakeholders, marshal governmental and non-governmental resources etc. etc. It is not just, as it once was, important to avoid Groupthink and thus bad decisions; it is key to even get the necessary information for policy-making to take place on highly complex issues like energy, food prices, non-proliferation etc.
True, acusations of this kind of “cliqueness” dogged Tony Blair as well. Remember the Sofa? But by now, politicians should see that this is not only deeply unpopular, but bad for policy-making.
