At one level the coalition government is doing well. Most people who are not part of the opposition cavalcade approve of where it is trying to head the country and what it is trying to achieve. Not all are confident it is on the right path to achieve those goals, but they feel that if there is the will, the way will be found.
Thus the dreadful lack of action, purpose and focus that appeared to surround its response to the need to dash to the aid of our nationals caught up in the Libya chaos, is very disappointing. It gives the opposition a hand of aces, smacks of incompetence and humiliates the Prime Minister who is forced into an apology.
Yet there may be more to this. This blog has been observing the fall in the evident competence in government departments. It looks as if ministers were as astonished as the rest of the world at our inability to act. The explanation is possibly this. So ingrained into the culture of public administration is the concept of due process, health and safety, equality of opportunity and host of other laudable nostrums, all of which are commendable, the result of the combination is officials who can no longer think outside the box. When something happens unexpectedly, they cannot react with the innovation and dynamism which was once the hallmark of the British nation and upon which our independent survial thus far has been founded.
The government must get to grips with this. A serious culture change is called for. Meanwhile it must sharpen up its own act. Cameron showed bold initiative going to the Middle East. Without him Hague looked almost a ditherer. The deputy prime minister was on a skiing vacation, having forgotten he was in charge in the prime minister’s absence. Britons sought the help of friendly ambassadors at Tripoli airport; their own was nowhere to be seen. Only the Royal Navy knew what it was doing and did it in timely fashion. Without the admiration created by its arrival in Benghazi, the tale would be even sorrier than it is.