Anybody can apply to run the Bank of England. It’s a good thing that public appointments are transparent — but dismissals still aren’t
Not so long ago, most jobs in public life were filled as if by magic. Indeed, until the 1960s the Conservative leadership was decided by a mysterious cabal known as “the magic circle”. There was next to no scrutiny of the opaque processes by which the British establishment renewed itself; and accountability barely existed. Apart from the fact that prime ministerial had replaced royal patronage, the system was hardly more transparent than it had been in the 18th century.
How much has changed in a generation could be seen this week, when the post of Governor of the Bank of England was advertised. What would Montagu Norman, Governor from 1920 to 1944, have made of his august office being offered to all and sundry? His stepson, Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, describes him as “every inch the cavalier, to the tip of his Van Dyke beard”, but in the age of dictators, Norman was known as “the currency dictator of Europe”.
Most past governors, for that matter, would have been astonished and dismayed, but throwing open such appointments is merely to follow the logic of reforms that began under Margaret Thatcher, gathered pace under Tony Blair and are now coming to fruition under Theresa May. From the BBC and the Church of England to the heads of MI5 and MI6, old boys’ networks are a thing of the past. And a good job too.
This week we have also seen a remarkable parade of candidates for the European elections that are assumed to be taking place next month. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party scored a palpable hit on the Tories by recruiting Ann Widdecombe, the formidable former minister, to join Annunziata Rees-Mogg, who is no less impressive a speaker than her brother Jacob. The Tiggers, otherwise variously known as Change UK and The Independent Group, unveiled an eye-catching lineup that included a former editor of The Lady (Rachel Johnson), a former BBC presenter (Gavin Esler) and a Matrix Chambers barrister (Jessica Simor QC). Unfortunately for the new party, two other leading candidates (Joseph Russo and Ali Sadjady) were obliged to resign almost immediately, after their social media records were exposed and deemed “inappropriate”.
One of the hazards of contemporary public life is death by Twitter mob, often pre-empted by peremptory and precipitate sacking. This was the fate meted out to Toby Young last year and more recently to Sir Roger Scruton. In the latter case, selective quotations from an interview in the New Statesman, once tweeted, secured Scruton’s defenestration within hours. A few remarks taken out of context apparently outweighed a lifetime of intellectual achievement. If public appointments are now rightly governed by open and accountable procedures, dismissals sometimes seem to follow no due process at all.
An important area of public life that has been partially opened up is the academic world. Gone are the days of byzantine intrigues at Oxbridge colleges, as chronicled in C.P. Snow’s novel The Masters. Now these ancient institutions, like their modern counterparts, are obliged to advertise their headships. The result has been only partial improvement: a minority of university vice-chancellors have attracted widespread criticism for their greed and extravagance, while heads of house in Oxford and Cambridge seem to be drawn almost exclusively from the media — as long as they are Left-of-centre. There is nothing necessarily wrong with colleges appointing former editors and television executives, but journalists who are serious about enabling students to discover the joys of the intellectual life are the exception rather than the rule. The same, of course, applies to the dons themselves. Universities have seldom needed academic freedom and open debate to be defended robustly as much as they do now.
Advertising public appointments is not invariably sensible. Catholic priests from abroad have apparently been refused visas by the Home Office on the grounds that their “jobs” had not been advertised. While it makes sense for leading prelates, up to and including Popes and Archbishops of Canterbury, to be drawn from the widest possible fields of candidates, the nature of a priestly vocation means that not just anyone can apply. However, the scandals that have afflicted the churches ought to make these institutions especially eager to be transparent.
In our time, it is not enough to show leadership. One must also show that one has earned the right to show leadership. Born leaders may emerge from any background; but nobody is born to rule.
