Cabinet is not the House of Commons. Cabinet ministers are consistently briefed in far greater detail than the House on Executive policies and decisions. And if the House of Commons is deliberately misled by the Executive of the day, particularly by the prime minister of the day, it does not bear anything like the same responsibility for policy endorsements as that borne by cabinet ministers.
If a cabinet minister accepts as 'wrong' (as the new Labour Leader put it) major policy choices taken by the Executive then their course is to resign, as did Robin Cook over the attack upon Iraq. The resignation of the then Leader of the House of Commons followed by his statement to the House shows that determining the worth of evidence for the decision to make war on Iraq was open to cabinet ministers in a way that it was not to ordinary Members of the House - be they government back-benchers or opposition Members.
So when David Miliband turns in contempt to Harman, asking"Why are you clapping?" he is not referring to her behaviour as a member of Parliament voting in the House, but to her voting behaviour as a Cabinet member, and her repudiation of cabinet responsibility during the last Labour government.
"I am supporting him...", doesn't begin to justify the public rejection of a central part of our governing system, and the denial of a responsibility that can never be set aside once assumed.
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4 comments:
That was then - this is now. She wants to get her snout back into the trough. The consistency of her adherence to the principle of self-interest is very clear.
She is co-responsible for attacking another country, for making war. She is personally responsible for the deaths, maimings, impoverishments, destruction that have resulted. She is politically and institutionally responsible; she took an oath to carry that responsibility.
And now she claps and supports the view that what she did is utterly wrong, declaimed by a man who took office under the people with whom she acted? Took office with her.
At least David Miliband owns to his responsibilities and decisions.
And if we no longer have cabinet responsibility, what do we have in our democratic system to hold prime ministers with the bit between their teeth in check?
We can't send people out to kill others and then say 'sorry, mistake'.
We can't send people out to kill others and then say 'sorry, mistake'.
I am afraid we can. Harriet just showed us how.
I mean 'can't send...' and remain human, moral beings L.
I agree, she has just shown us what she (and the rest of them are).
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