Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
Fox is the new Coulson
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Post
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14 October 2011
Greetings from Tirana where this morning I met the Opposition leader before doing a seminar for companies on strategic communications, and this afternoon will see the Prime Minister after doing a session on crisis management.
Nobody was talking about Liam Fox, it has to be said. But as I burbled away to my Balkan audience, I couldn't help thinking the UK government could do with a bit of help and rigour in its comms and crisis management.
My definition of a crisis is an event or situation which calls your entire organisation into action and which threatens to overwhelm you if the wrong decisions are taken. So for all the toe-curling embarrassment Fox has caused, that does not yet apply. And even if the mishandling continues apace, this is not government threatening. So it is a crisis for Fox, likely to end in his departure, but not yet a crisis for Cameron.
It is showing up the good and the bad in Cameron's trait of wanting to stand by people. It is basically a good thing not to want to throw people overboard. It is a bad thing when it affects your judgement. It happened with Andy Coulson. It is happening with Fox. There comes a point where you realise this is not a synthetic frenzy got up by the opposition and the press. Most reasonable people looking in on what is already publicly known wonder how on earth Fox passes the fit and proper person for high office test. It is about judgement for heaven's sake.
It might be a good moment to clarify what I actually said about how long someone can survive a front page frenzy. It is often reported that I said anyone who was on the front pages for ten days in a row was a goner. I don't think I did. What I think I said was if the same story ran for ten to twelve days you knew you had a real crisis management issue not a frenzy.
So Cameron has a crisis management issue not yet a crisis. But he would be wise to grip this now. Coulson, then Fox, then the next one and the next one and before you know it an unshiftable pattern is set.
Ps - in Skopje yesterday I was gently chided by an Italian at my conference for failing to rebut some of the stories in the Serb media about my consultancy role in Kosovo. It came after I emphasised the importance of rebuttal as a mindset in a campaign. The Serbs, who don't accept Kosovo's independence, and some of whom don't like me for having revamped NATO comms during the Kosovo conflict, have had something of a field day. The payment for my supposed role as Hashim Thaci's new advisor (which I am not) has varied from 250k to 750k dollars. I wish! I am also said to be running a dirty tricks unit aimed at stopping Serbia joining the EU. I'm not. Oh, and someone tell Cherie she and I are apparently working together on this. Total nonsense.
The truth is that I was approached by the government via the British Council to advise on strategic communications, so I went there, interviewed people, did seminars, and then wrote a report which may or may not lead to further visits and-or changes in the way the government organises its comms. That's it.
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Fox is the new Norman Wisdom, you could say, since Alastair you are in the land of his number one fans.
: )
Norman at his best, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur18tEbQ-8I
Am I the only person upon reading this blog to be somewhat reassured that it is not only the British press that is capable of making up complete and utter bollocks?
The arrogance of Fox, in not registering the existence etc of his “best man”, is breathtaking. In believing that their political and business relationships would never be questioned, he demonstrates a stunning disregard for our democracy.
In not having ready a full and complete answer to any enquiry, he obviously thinks that the government press controls you are seeking are already in place.
By leaving Fox swinging in the wind until next week, Cameron has given this Sunday’s papers a chance to crawl all over this affair.
If I were a tabloid journalist (God forbid!) I’d be focusing on the burglary at Fox’s flat last year.
Although I chided Olli yesterday, I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next man but it needs enough suspicious facts and unanswered questions to prop it up. The burglary has plenty of both.
But I won’t elaborate on my own theory about it because (a) it’s potentially libellous and (b) because like most conspiracy theories it’s probably a lot of tosh.
Yes, you are.
Give my best to Alania, Alastair. Myself though, I am started to get tanked up, and, apart from an hour or two sleep, no doubt, am going to keep on going to full time against my froggie mates tomorrow morning. If Wales lose this I will be surprised, and eat my underwear.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/15307253.stm
Song for my La France mates, albeit Bretagne…, and Pays de Galles obvious mates,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSl9PLILsO8
QUOTES:
We are on the verge of global transformation. All we need is a major crisis and the nations will accept New World Order.
DAVID ROCKEFELLER
I have been conspiring with others around the world to have a more integrated political and economic structure – one world.
DAVID ROCKEFELLER
How to Achieve The New World Order
Title of book excerpt in Time (March 1994) by HENRY KISSINGER
Further global progress is now only possible through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order.
MIKHAIL GORBACHEV
Let us fashion together a new world order.
HENRY KISSINGER at United Nations Oct 1975
The new world order will answer economic, military, and political problems.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER
The New World Order will have to be built from bottom up…but in the end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece will accomplish much more than old fashioned frontal assault.
RICHARD GARDNER member of CFR
The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands.
Professor CARROLL QUIGLEY
The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vechicle for multinational consolidation of commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government.
US Senator BARRY GOLDWATER
The case for government by elites in irrefutable.
Senator WILLIAM FULBRIGHT
We shall have world government whether or not you like it, by conquest or consent.
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member JAMES WARBURG to the Senate on Feb 17th, 1950
In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolute; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn´t such a great idea after all.
STROBE TALBOT in Time July 20th, 1992
The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government.
Congressman LARRY P. McDONALD
I could go on the whole day with similar quotes by George Soros etc. What connects people who want New World Order, one-world government and a single global currency? Answer: Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg Group.
As for the single global currency, China wants it. US, UN and IMF are positive about it. Read IMF and UN reports on the subject, and you will understand. Global currency will replace the dollar, and will be based on IMF´s expanded SDR.
In the past, any obvious impropriety would have resulted in the immediate resignation of the minister in question. By asking his civil servants to conduct and enquiry Fox merely reveals his own lack of common sense and judgement. Surely he can see that he should not have put the Prime Minister in the position of having to defend him? The mere fact that Wittery was posing illicitly as a bona fide member of Fox’s staff – printed cards and all – and being present at confidential meetings, should have been enough for any minister to resign without being pushed. Now of course, the hacks are digging and more and more stuff is being revealed. If Fox had gone immediately he would have lost only his cabinet seat. Now he has lost his dignity as well.
Not sure why the BBC and its commentators continue to refer to the allegations against Liam Fox as being in relation to his ‘private life’.
Seems to me like the allegations in question relate exclusively to his public duties.
That’s kind of the whole point, isn’t it?
And the next one is. . .Oliver Letwin?
It’s not as bad as the Fox affair, but it’s pretty bad – cabinet minister cavalierly chucks away letters revealing constituents’ personal details and issues, not to mention confidential correspondence, even if it’s not classified.
This government is looking increasingly accident-prone. In 18 months we’ve had David Laws, Michael Gove and schools funding, the trees saga, the NHS saga, Vince Cable’s misspeaking, Gove and confidential email accounts, Fox and now Letwin (and I’ve probably forgotten many on the way). Not to mention Osborne’s strategy for no growth.
Cameron is getting an easier ride from the media than Blair or Brown ever did, but I’m not sure the public are falling for it.
Some other QUOTES Olli:
“To be or not to be”. Shakespeare.
“To be is to do”. Plato.
“Do Be Do Be Do”. Sinatra.
Alaistair, you are being very unkind to The Prime Minister you know he needs to partake in the correct procedured regarding Dr Liam Fox.
I would like to know how Ed Miliband of all bandwaggon jumping, turning calm into chaos, weak people can call David Cameron weak he is never that., our Prime Minister is also not a reactionary person -he likes all the facts before making a up his mind! LIam Fox will probably need to go but no one will be able to say Cameron forced him out of the door in a weak John Major type of way
Also dear chap, Andy coulston – The Prime Minister was only looking for another you, and you were magnificent! Also like yourself David Cameron understands the words loyalty and back to the Liam Fox affair, what is this about the shadow defence secretary being paid £10,000 by a defence company- If True Naughty Boy…But as you would know The Great British Press are not interested in that, they usually prefer to bash whoever is the goverment of the day and why let the truth get in the way of a good story, I’m sure you dont miss them in the slightest.
I’m most grateful to you for those quotes but I don’t see how they support your thesis.
A New World Order is not necessarily the same thing as a World Government.
Some of these quotes are very ancient.
Some of these people are very dubious characters.
Many of them are simply expressing aspirations and many of us would agree that the two greatest obstacles to a peaceful world are nation states and religions – and sometimes a dangerous combination of the two. But I don’t see any signs of either of them disappearing any time soon.
Most nation states remain as chauvinistic as ever and we are seeing a resurgence of messianic, fundamentalist religiosity.
As for the Bilderberg Group, I’ve never seen any evidence that it’s anything more than an annual ‘Awayday’ and ‘Jolly’ for a bunch of second-rate and self-important politicians. They certainly haven’t achieved much since it began in 1954.
Liam Fox has gone. In the words of Denis Healey – what a silly billy.
Has he left himself open to blackmail, is the question that needs to be arsed, sorry, asked?
Dr Fox now walking the Green Mile.
That’s 100% correct Olli.
The powers that be have been quite open and unambiguous about their plans.
Yet some people still won’t or can’t see it!
Yes, ambrosian and Dave S.
(2 of my fav. commenters) I’m looking at you ‘boys’ maybe if both or either of you could come up with a credible alternative explanation of the mess this country and europe is in, other than the fact that ours and other governments are seemingly inept, then I for one would genuinely like to hear it 🙂
I wouldn’t disagree with any of that Richard.
But I would just add that I believe that governments have always had some degree of control over the press. According to my late father, who worked very closely with a Fleet Street press baron in the late 1920’s and early to mid 1930’s the government were excersing total control over the press at that time.
I seriously doubt if anything has changed very much since then.
They may give the impression or illusion occasionally that things are different now
e.g. the phone hacking story. But important as that undoubtably is to those concerned, it’s not really of any great importance in the great scheme of things imho.
I’m sorry but I don’t think Cameron is behaving well at all about this.
It seems to me that he thinks the standard we are guaging here is his loyalty to a colleague but it’s not. We already know Cameron is reckless when trying to give the ‘your Dave’s a good guy’ impression.
I don’t give a monkeys about that, I care that we have someone still in post that has abused its privilege. We can only imagine the status that Liam Fox has in this role, it’s massive.
He’s shown in his past that he doesn’t care about the impression he gives (when standing for the first time and carrying on as a GP till the next opportunity arose, fat zilch impression of really having the vocation one hopes …….).
Ooooooops, I’ll stop here, have just heard he’s stepped down.
Can we start on Letwyn now? Throwing away constituent’s mail that I doubt anyone had redacted.
YE GODS and little fishes 🙁
Friday night in and in hopes of staying awake ….. Kevin Maguire has been very helpful, he’s having a bean feast on Any Qs ……. comparing Letwyn to a womble in reverse LOL.
Chris Grayling has already trotted out re what (he thinks) a great job Fox has done …… ‘given what he inherited’.
Yeah right, we know Fox is a LIAR, let’s hope the lies about what he inherited will get properly discussed at last.
My advice. Don’t read/trust the Serb media:)
HI there Alastair,
great to be part of your training in Tirana today..Enjoyed it immensly.. and made me think of my daily communications job…. Am i doing my work right..or am i trying to communicate in vacum… maybe the latter is a little problematic..anyway.the OST is stuck in my mind.. and will be for quite abit…thanks a million..NK
thanks for the great seminar today in Tirana..I enjoyed it immensly..
I’m happy to be in agreement with you Richard. It’s been a quite stunning week.
He got this job thinking there are privileges, things unsaid.
He’s not understood that propriety is all, crucial, essential, non-negotiable. I’m really wondering what the hell he thought it was about? We are NOT a banana republic.
Pleeeease …… no suggestions wanted that he’ll go back to being a GP 🙁
He needs a period of what so many others are enduring nowadays but him being a well-deserved example of it.
Q is ….. will Werrity buy the groceries?
I feel as if I’m in a parallel universe peopled by odd things that think they’ve been OKed by some body that I have no connection with.
Anyway, this canine has the right priorities 🙂
He’d been drafted by all sorts of pirates in recent weeks !! Hence the mis-spelling of the title now ….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqHjVMNR8_Y
What utter drivel from someone so normally sensible.
Thanks. I enjoyed it too
He must have changed his mind about press controls when he read yesterday’s ‘Times’.
Interesting quotations, but I don’t think any of them prove the existence of a global conspiracy. The 1975 Kissinger quote could mean anything – a New World Order based on communes and bartering for instance. Bertrand Russell wanted world government but I don’t think he was part of a global conspiracy.
Apiarianism is certainly increasing in popularity and has ancient lineage. Not sure whether the word exists but if not I made it up.
Are you feeling alright Richard?
That’s two of yours I’ve Liked this week :-s
I doubt if there was ever a time when people didn’t think the country/world was in a mess and when some people didn’t seek to explain it by reference to either religion or conspiracies.
Secondly, free market capitalism is not just immoral but doesn’t work. (I don’t have to describe an alternative to state that).
Thirdly, yes, governments are inept but in fairness to them global economic systems are now incredibly complex.
Fourthly, if we accept that so many politicians are too inept to organise a piss-up in a brewery, then it’s stretching credulity to think they could organise some secret, global conspiracy and achieve the somewhat ambitious aim of abolishing nation states and creating a World Government with a single currency.
This is another quote Olli / Gbc, you could try to be less selective with your own, it’s just as easy to gain the accusation of being manipulative if one is wholly anti-something. I must admit I’m less wary of a bunch of rich boy scouts than I am about convinced god botherers :
In 2001, Denis Healey,
a Bilderberg group founder and, for 30 years, a steering committee
member, said: “To say we were striving for a one-world government is
exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we
couldn’t go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing
people and rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single
community throughout the world would be a good thing.
Well done Alastair. Us UK rest of us are not worthy, to promote communication. But youtube helps,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl2ssrn-vRs
Letwin, the great intellect, should walk the plank. Such behaviour is inexcusable.
Thank you for your reply ambrosian. I agree with your first two points.
Your third point about the complexities of global economic systems is interesting and of course accurate. But, that is the way it was deliberately planned by the wealthy ruling elite! i.e. to get countries hopelessly drowning in unrepayable debt and the only option will be for us to accept a One World Government and all that it entails. Depopulation on an unprecedented scale, a totalitarian government and a return to serfdom.
That is their plan. It is not a secret or a conspiracy theory. They have been very open about it all.
On your fourth point. It is not governments themselves who are organising our downfall. As we seem to agree on, they are far too inept for that. However, some members of this current coalition government are part of the ruling elite. Which is why Osbourne is standing idly by, doing little or nothing to implement any measures to get this country’s economy going again. Some MP’s are just bought and paid for puppets. The biggest and most obvious puppet on the planet right now is Obama. I happen to believe that Ed Miliband is his own man, for the present at least. Whether that continues, remains to be seen. I just hope he doesn’t go the same way as the late John Smith and Robin Cook.
To be perfectly honest, it matters not one jot to me if some people simply can’t get their heads around the way in which this world is really run.
Though as I’ve written before, more and more are catching on every day.
All we can do is warn people. What they choose to do with that information is up to them.
Letwin has been described by some paid commenters as ‘other worldly’
a polite way of calling him an idiot, I suspect.
Also let’s not forget that this is a man who opened his door to a burglar during the early hours of the morning a few years ago. Alledgedly the burglar had knocked on Oliver’s door and asked if he could use his loo! So, hapless Oliver let him in (bless) and was robbed.
Oliver Letwin is probably a nice enough bloke. But, with a track record of such naivety and carelessness he certainly should not be anywhere near the sharp end of anything.