Today’s televised select committee proceedings showed us clearly what had happened in the UK Border Agency. It is typical of what is happening throughout the Civil Service. A massively overpaid “Chief Executive”, Rob Whiteman, is parachuted in on £240,000 a year. He has never had a day’s experience as an immigration officer in his life.
He is placed over Brodie Clark, a man with over 30 years experience, who is head of the Border Force. Whiteman needs to stamp his authority on a force which probably at many levels resents a total outsider being brought in. Was Whiteman, of Barking and Dagenham local council, really that much more capable than all of the thousands of existing Border Force people who actually knows the work? Absolutely anybody could predict Whiteman’s next move – he gets rid of Clark.
He does it by conflating two things. The longstanding fact that at peak times border controls have to be relaxed or airports would overflow in sewerage and planes drop off the sky. And a targeted pilot scheme, that sounds rather sensible, to relax certain controls on certain people to allow better targeting.
Getting rid of Clark necessitates exaggerating the problems, something which an immigrant demonising media is ready to help with. But this causes problems for May as Home Secretary. Not caring about anything but her own career, she reacts by heaping huge loads of manure on Clark’s head.
Whiteman managed, in appearing before a select committee today, to come across as even more horrible than the Murdochs. That you and I are paying his huge salary is appalling. Almost appalling is that the “independent investigation” into what happened is being conducted by John Vine, who was a party to the decision to sack Clark, and a party to some of the correspondence and minutes which Whiteman refused to give the Select Commitee because he was giving it to Vine’s investigation.
Read that last sentence again. Yes, incredible but true. Yet another new low for government whitewash?
This thing stinks.
Craig, been it, done it, bought the Tshirt.
It is called the Whiteman’s burden.
People from the collonies know it all to well, having a whiteman with no knowledge or experence put over them with a much higher salery.
It seems there is a glass ceiling in this country – for the competent, honest and selfless.
Lorraine Fulbrook was one of those CONs giving Mr. Clark a hard time and attempting to discredit him. I see that Michael Hintze of Fox Werrity fame is named as a donor on her TWFY register of interests. Her own website tells us that ‘Lorraine also served as a Member of the British-American Parliamentary Group Executive Committee from 2010-2011 and remains a member of the Group. Lorraine is a supporter of the Centre for Social Justice and is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.’ What is the British American Parliamentary Group Executive Committee and is Fox also a member? At one stage she was indulging in amateur dramatics this morning by shaking her head in disbelief at Mr. Clark’s evidence.
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Joining with her in holding the line for St Theresa were James Clappison, Vice Chairman of the CFoI and a barrister, and Michael Ellis, also a barrister. The latter’s questioning was particularly aggressive but Mr. Clark, who looks very strained, stood up well.
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I am with Brodie.
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May avoided the HoC today as I said earlier. She had a prior engagement at the National Security Council. Probably discussing Rapier missiles for the next Berlin style Olympics being held at Stratford next year.
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Waiting to see young Chloe Smith reply to the debate on fuel prices!!
Having worked in the public service throughout the Blair era, I recognise the syndrome intimately: the belief that Management and Leadership will sort out the Public Services, and that public servants will only be motivated by fear and insecurity, and the only sort of achievement that can be seen in their work is the hitting of arbitrary, and largely distracting and irrelevant, ‘targets’ that mimic market forces.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/publicservicesawards/judge-rob-whiteman
You can see the type. Always in the right time at the right place, oh and knows the right people.
It would surely be too much paranoia/conspiricy/obsessive to wonder if Mr. Whiteman was put in charge of Immigration just because of his name. Naaaah…but any standup comedians reading this can have that one free.
Whiteman speak with forked tongue – Old Indian Comic Book Saying
I thought my piece (http://billynojob.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/kicking-the-cat-theresa-may-follows-in-the-ignominious-footsteps-of-ed-balls/)was vicious enough, but yours has surpassed it! Interesting that whilst I’ve got May as my main target, you’ve got Whiteman. But the latter is surely the tool of the former.
I see Vine ex CC Tayside gets £190,000 pa (plus a police pension as well??)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent_Chief_Inspector_of_the_UK_Border_Agency
Craig, interesingly this piece is ranked No 2 on newsnow.co.uk in Hot Topics/UK Botder Agency Inquiry but your piece on Gould wasn’t linked to at all in Hot Topics/Fox Resignation – Hot Topics ignores Hot Potatoes you might say.
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http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Hot+Topics/UK+Border+Agency+Inquiry
Excellent analysis, Craig. The ghastly Whiteman is just so typical of the breed now infesting the upper reaches of local government, from where he emanated.
I know I keep quoting Yeats, but it just seems so damned relevant these day…
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For how can you compete,
Being honour bred, with one
Who, were it proved he lies,
Were neither shamed in his own
Nor in his neighbours’ eyes?
Yes, this episode stinks to high heaven- I hope Clark is instrumental in terminating May’s career, and that of the opportunistic careerist slug who was parachuted in over his head.
‘Rob is a well known commentator and writer on a wide range of areas such as leadership, partnership working, modernisation and building community cohesion. Local Government Chronicle (LGC) named him as one of the ten most influential people in local government’.
Says it all really- Whiteman’s main area of expertise is in spouting modish, meaningless verbiage. Is he a Common Purpose ‘graduate’ by any chance ? They are the ones who tend to move into the areas that the old guard careerists ‘on the square’ vacate as they retire. The same dross in different camoflage.
@Richard…
“Having worked in the public service throughout the Blair era, I recognise the syndrome intimately: the belief that Management and Leadership will sort out the Public Services, and that public servants will only be motivated by fear and insecurity…”
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I have a similar history, on the wrong end of management by dictat, bullying and unashamed buck-passing. The end result was always that we lost our best people first (who found it relatively easy to move on) and were left with the rest – usually yes-men and no-hopers to a man. ‘Man’ here being gender-unspecific – if they weren’t all males, then not all of the males were men in my estimation anyway.
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So public questions like “Surely it belies coincidence that they’re ALL be as bad as each other?” could only be met with the answer that not only was it not coincidence – it was policy!
Old Mark, as I read that self-congratulatory drivel, I had exactly he same thought – Common Purpose = EU-Nazi 5th columnist traitors courtesy of Prescott.
Yes Old Mark I wondered about that too and looked earlier. He is on a long list on one of those forums as a CP attendee.
When this farce first blew up last week I’m sure I saw a reference to stats which showed (or purported to show) that during the period of the trial, *more* people were stopped and held than normal. Now I neither remember where I saw them nor can I find them again. Certainly any discussion of actual *evidence* of effectiveness is nowhere. Did I dream it? Ring any bells with anyone?
Usual bilge. He even had a diary secretary and a PA.
http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=22493081
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IDEA was the forerunner of the Local Government Improvement Service
Sorry I have got lost in the welter of acronyms surrounding this junk. Presume Local Government Improvement and Development is Pickles’ remit now.
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http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=1700140
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So efficient that they still have Whiteman as their MD
Craig – perhaps its a little obvious but wasn’t it strange that Sir Phillip Mawer, who as I understand is still on a 30k retainer in order to remain available to the government, was not asked to investigate Fox/Werrity? He is, after all, the independent adviser on ministerial interests.
It is not customarily the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary to investigate breaches of the ministerial code nor to ensure it is upheld – that is the job of the Prime Minister.
Oh, and Frank Gardiner is reporting on Iran under ‘covert attack’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15741989
Chloe Smith nervy and giving a performance worthy of a sixrth form debate.
Hmm, Common Purpose – interesting crowd, which has a hankering for ‘leading beyond authority’. See here –
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http://www.commonpurpose.org.uk/about/leading-beyond-authority
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Encouraging egomania? Surely not…
I can see this story in the context of the next big terror flagration, surface to air missiles and army deployed at the Olympics, it will all slot together nicely.
Theresa the Lazy said that ‘it is impossible to know who came into Britain’ under her relaxed regime, so lets assume that ‘they are already here’, one step removed from a false flag attack and mayhem at the Olympics.
I hope that Brodie lets slip a few more of their policy own goals relating to relaxed direct access for Saudi terror backers, coming here ‘shopping’ in Oxford street, that should give white man something to think about. He is in charge of the sieve this country has become under the CONDEMS.
Yes Ingo who or what has come in on the private planes and who and what has gone out. The place is wide open. It’s a bit like the 60s and 70s when we were promised a passport free and borderless europe or even world.
Who remembers that film, “white men can’t jump”?
If true, this guy isn’t going to jump ship and resign?
Just added parachuted-in boss of the UK Border Agency to the appropriate Wikipedia entry. In most fictional contexts his name would have rendered him implausible. This being the real world, however, the reverse was the case. Sadly for other candidates, as soon as he submitted his application it was very much game over:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism
After a bottle of cheap Cabernet Veneto I can claim without any fear of contradiction that Theresa May is a born liar. Tomorrow morning I will claim the same thing. To my knowledge Brodie Clark is an honest man – I have heard nothing to the contrary. Let it not be forgotten that Theresa May had a clear agenda at the Conservative Party Conference to repatriate as many asylum-seekers as was possible in her watch to whatever repressive regimes (the Malyshevs are a prime example of how quickly she got into action) and she backed her proposal with a blatant lie “I kid you not” that an asylum-seeker was allowed to stay in this country because he had a cat. She is a liar, absolutely and unequivocably. And as Craig says, Whitman, on a massive salary has replaced the honest man with 30 years of service. Theresa May has not had 2 years of service before she is found out to be what she is – a natural born liar.
38 years John including 15 years in senior management.
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I came in tonight and saw that Paxman and Richard Watson were discussing the matter on Newsnight. ‘I think she’ll stay’, says Watson. ‘Clark will have a problem as he did not notify May that he was abandoning the fingerprint checks.’ blah blah. So case closed. The state broadcaster’s chief stooge and another have spoken.
A little point no one seems to have asked: what will happen during the Olympics, if gay bonny lot of foreigners decide to come over here? Apart from the awaiting missiles threatening to shoot the planes that carried these to our Sacred Shores, will the border agency be busy processing these by the end of which it will be time for them to broad their planes if these are still in one piece, and fly back to whence they came from?
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Beijing Olympics was a spectacle for the world to behold, will the London Olympics be an all mighty fuck up for the world to know who they ought not to mess with?
@ Mary.
“Yes Ingo who or what has come in on the private planes and who and what has gone out.”
Who or what indeed.
Probably a lot of CIA extraordinary rendition planes have come in and alot of innocent people have simply disappeared.
Bastards.