How can we have faith in leaders?
ARE we governed by a bunch of clowns?
Last week there was one gaffe after another from Government Ministers.
Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, told the House of Commons that killings during the Troubles at the hands of the military and police “were not crimes”.
She explained that, unlike terrorists, “they were people acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duty in a dignified and appropriate way.”
But an announcement is expected soon on whether prosecutions will be bought in relation to the Bloody Sunday killings, when troops opened fire and 13 people were killed in January 1972.
Her comments could almost have been designed to offend people and to cast doubt on whether the UK’S institutions can be trusted to be even-handed. She has since apologised. Then there was Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, who described Labour politician Diane Abbott as “coloured”.
It’s a phrase many people find offensive.
And while she may not have meant any harm, she’s a very senior politician and should know better. She too has apologised.
Fellow Cabinet Minister Andrea Leadsom gave a bizarre answer when she questioned about allegations of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.
She suggested an MP should discuss the issue “with Foreign Office Ministers”.
Critics say this suggests she believes Muslims are in some way foreigners, even though the question was clearly about attitudes towards Islam here in the UK.
Ms Leadsom denies this. But what did she mean?
Then there was Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General, who used a strange metaphor as he updated MPS about Brexit talks.
Referring to a proposed change to the Brexit withdrawal agreement, he said: “It has come to be called ‘Cox’s codpiece.’ What I am concerned to ensure is that what is inside the codpiece is in full working order.”
And we heard from Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, who said police forces should respond to knife crime by cutting spending “from other areas of policing activity.”
He told the BBC: “What we need to see now is a surging of resources from other areas of policing activity into dealing with this spike in knife crime.
“And that’s what you do in any organisation when you get a specific problem occurring in one area of the operation.”
What exactly does he think the police should cut? It’s not as if their coffers are overflowing with money to spend fighting burglaries.
With concern about knife crime at such a high, Mr Hammond’s suggestion was, at best, tin eared.
The country is entering a challenging period, as we attempt at last to decide what to do about Brexit.
It’s hard to be confident that the people leading us through it are up to the job.