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May 21, 2010

Comments

Gaw

Excellent post. And it's not as if we don't have an recent example of someone good at 'pushing things through' failing in the top job.

I Agree with Nick

Sh*t usually floats to the top.

stephen

"the single-mindedness that allows him to “get things done” might even be a drawback to being leader, at least in peacetime."

Or, one might reasonably suppose, it might not be a drawback during a peacetime crisis of almost wartime dimensions. Compare national debt, 1945/2010.

"A big quality of a good leader - and a good PM - is the flexibility to reconcile conflicting factions, people and ideas"

Flexible reconciliation does tend to result in nothing being done, getting things done being a drawback. See above for occasional peacetime undesirability of that.

"and to respond to new events"

In a crisis, when things have to be done, that may not require flexible reconciliation.

OMIGOD what have I done, I'm arguing in favour of Ed Balls.

Desperate retraction: what has he got done that was worth doing?

patrick

stephen - National debt in 2010 is nowhere near as large as it was in 1945. It's currently about 69% of GDP, whereas national debt peaked in the late 40s at nearly 250% of GDP. (source http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/downchart_ukgs.php?year=1900_2010&view=1&expand=&units=p&fy=2010&chart=G0-total&bar=0&stack=1&size=l&color=c&title=UK%20National%20Debt%20As%20Percent%20Of%20GDP) Not saying it isn't a problem (not least because of the direction of travel) but it's still lower than at any time between about 1915 and 1975

David Heigham

Leadres lead; bosses boss - thst is different Bullies bulls**t - different again. I suspect that Balls is in the third category.The bit of socialism that Labour still seems vaguely attached to is the idea that they decide what we want; so is Balls such a bad fit?

Going to who gets the millions, the banks are paying the rally heavy cash to the professionals, not to the bosses.

Fred Kapoor

Unfortunately, that's the reality. I agree with the general idea conveyed in the article. Like it or not, skills, responsibility, moral value, knowledge and hard work are no longer the receipt to success in any work area. Nowadays, it has become more like a connections and smart moves game in which the coldest and the most selfish people get to the top even if they haven't worked hard or even if they are not suitable for a certain position. Sad bad true.

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