Quote of the Day (George Osborne, on Why Governments Need Periodic Turnover)

“Policy mistakes grow like barnacles. Governments groan under the weight of all the things they've said in the past that no one wants to unsay. Prime ministers become surrounded by an adviser team that has only ever known them as premiers. A soft corruption sets in, where respect for the rules dissipates and every senior official has been appointed to their post by the current administration.”—Former British politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, “Past Master” (review of Tony Blair’s On Leadership), The Financial Times, Sept.7-8, 2024

In an otherwise laudatory review of Blair’s new book, Osborne really takes serious issue only with the former Prime Minister’s contention that the longer leaders stay in power, the better they become.

Much of Osborne’s argument clearly derives from his own experience as a British Cabinet official, but there remains the necessity for continuity in administration—hence, the survival of bureaucracy in the UK and the United States.

(The image accompanying this post, showing George Osborne speaking on the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament elections, at Keele University, was created May 18, 2009, by M. Holland.)