Starmer's Leadership Crisis: A Failure of Vision Paralyzes Government
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has publicly lamented the malfunctioning machinery of government, claiming that when he pulls policy levers, little happens. This complaint has sparked a notable public disagreement with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who appears unsympathetic to this perspective. Streeting has suggested that if the government cannot deliver results, the electorate may well seek alternative leadership.
The Changing Landscape of Civil Service Talent
There is undeniable truth that the overall calibre of the civil service has diminished compared to fifty years ago. In the 1970s, a Whitehall position represented a coveted prize for the brightest graduates, competing primarily with academia or the BBC. Today's landscape is vastly different. The City of London is significantly more accessible to talent, major consultancy firms have expanded enormously despite recent contractions, and entrepreneurship has become a mainstream career path.
Consequently, the civil service no longer attracts the absolute brightest minds in the same concentrated manner. However, it still employs many perfectly competent individuals. This reality forces us to look beyond personnel for explanations behind the Prime Minister's complaints about bureaucratic inefficiency.
The Fundamental Role of Visionary Leadership
Successful organisations, whether corporate entities or governments, thrive under leadership that conveys a clear, long-term direction and articulates coherent goals. While possessing a vision does not guarantee success—it may be fundamentally flawed or derailed by unforeseen events like innovative competitors—it remains a necessary condition for achievement. An institution struggles to perform well without this guiding framework.
Historical Parallels: Corporate Leadership Lessons
An intriguing perspective on this principle comes from Harvard academic Alfred Chandler's seminal work, Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism, published over three decades ago. Chandler meticulously analysed large firms in Britain, Germany, and America around the year 1900—a period when companies first operated on a genuinely global scale, reaching sizes only surpassed by today's tech giants.
Chandler concluded that prosperous organisations were those that established a long-term vision. He defined the board's key task as "the determination of the long-term goals and objectives of the enterprise and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out those goals." In stark contrast, he described a now-defunct British company whose board wasted meetings on trivial details, like manually calculating product costs to set prices.
Starmer's Government: Echoes of Failed Management
This historical example sounds remarkably familiar in the context of the Starmer administration. The central challenges facing any British government today are restoring robust economic growth and improving public sector productivity. Instead, the Cabinet appears consumed by squabbling over policies and financial sums that are trivial relative to Britain's serious economic predicament.
The Prime Minister has failed to articulate any coherent vision for his government, frequently issuing contradictory directives. It is little wonder the government machinery—whatever its other shortcomings—fails to respond when levers are pulled. Starmer often references his toolmaker father, but he might reflect on the adage: it is a poor workman who blames his tools.
Paul Ormerod is an Honorary Professor at the Alliance Business School, University of Manchester.
