Jacqui Smith: I wasn't up to being Home Secretary

[Psephos]

Source: Mirror (UK)

Jacqui Smith has admitted she was not up to being Home Secretary - and should have been given some proper training before she was handed the job.

Ms Smith, who is likely to be remembered for claiming expenses for a porn film watched by her husband, said any success she had was down to luck rather than skill.

She added: "When I became Home Secretary I'd never run a major organisation. I hope I did a good job but if I did it was more by luck than by any kind of development of skills. I think we should have been better trained. I think there should have been more induction."

When asked by Total Politics magazine if she had worried she was not up to the job, she replied: "Every single time I was appointed to a ministerial job I thought that. I didn't sleep for a week in 1999 when I got my ministerial job."

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/07/17/jacqui-i-wasn-t-up-to-being-home-sec-115875-21525835/

[Hissyspit]

1. Can you imagine Sarah Palin giving that interview?

[DeSwiss]

2. Well I'll give her credit for her candor....

...but even more credit for banning Michael Savage from Great Britain.

- Wish we could ban him from the US....

K&R

[47of74]

3. as well as the Westboro idiots.

[TheBigotBasher]

6. Michael Savage was only done to cover up

Home Office fear mongering. Savage had not even applied to come to the UK, nor had anyone invited him. Jackboots however had a list of people she wanted banned from the Country. It would not have looked good if they were all Brown and all Muslim.

[LeftishBrit]

4. At least she's honest...

I don't expect that Michael Howard, David Blunkett or Charles Clarke will ever admit that *they* weren't up to being Home Secretary.

It's a long time since we've had a Home Secretary who *was* up to it. Perhaps the last one who was even up to it was Douglas Hurd, and the last good one was Roy Jenkins.

[TheBigotBasher]

5. Estelle Morris was honest

who quit because she felt not up to the job.

Remaining in the job until you get sacked is hardly honest.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Estelle Morris...

was probably the only Education Secretary in 30 years that I've actually liked!

It's a pity she resigned, especially as it meant we got Charles Clarke.

[TheBigotBasher]

8. Don't remind me of that.

When he moved to the Home Office I almost wanted Blunkett back. If there was anybody that I feared getting hold of the Blair Enabling Act, (the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill), it was him. A nasty creature that literally would have done anything to play to the Daily Mail crowd.

[T_i_B]

9. One thing I have noticed with ex-ministers giving interviews at present

is that they are clearly pining for Tony Blair. Here is last week's Guardian Interview with Jacqui Smith for instance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/11/jacqui-smith-interview

Has Labour missed Tony Blair? "Of course. Yes, we've missed him individually, and we've missed that ability to communicate." Would he have dealt with this crisis better? "He has a real strength of understanding people's feelings and being able to communicate to people. I think he would have got the zeitgeist about expenses. One of his strengths is he understands how people feel about things, he identifies it quickly and then he's able to take action about it. I think he would have been less good on the substantive issue of the last year - Gordon would have had to do that." She calls Blair the greatest British politician of modern times, and names Brown second and Thatcher third.

And then there was James Purnell in yesterday's Grauniad wallowing in 1990's nostalgia as well.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/17/james-purnell-resignation-first-interview

And it's a similar story on Labour blogs, with too many Labour bloggers acting like it's still 1997. Labour needs to start living in the here and now IMHO, however painful that may be.