A new kind of responsibility

This is nice. Gordon Brown has finally apologised for the Damian McBride email slur thing, at an interview in Glasgow (presumably on the basis that anything said north of Newcastle immediately has 32.7% less impact, as proven by scientists). He also took “full responsibility”, thus:

…‘Asked if he took responsibility, Brown said: "I take full responsibility for what happens and that's why the person who was responsible went immediately."…

For a chunky lad, Gordon seems to have performed a positively balletic bit of doublethink here; ‘taking responsibility’ while simultaneously finding someone else responsible.

As politicians and government in general have grudgingly opened themselves up to ever greater scrutiny, we’ve gradually accepted the idea that proper ministerial responsibility isn’t really practical. If a Home Secretary resigned every time a junior civil servant lost a CD with all our banking details on it, Noel Edmonds would probably be Home Secretary by now, and that’s no way to run a country.

Which is all well and good, but “I didn’t know what my staff was up to” doesn’t really sound very statesmanlike, does it?

So, ministerial responsibility is back! But, unlike version 1.0, it no longer means “it happened under my watch, so it’s ultimately my fault”. No – welcome to a tough, macho new version of ministerial responsibility, under which ministers 'take responsibility' for cleaning up corruption and incompetence wherever it raises its head (after the event and neatly sidestepping the fact that they were, nominally, in charge).

Imagine the kind of 'taking responsibility' Dirty Harry might indulge in – that’s more where we are now. Gordon’s taking on the establishment, taking matters into his own hands and giving them a damn good shake.

See what we did there? Easy, wasn't it? Expect to see people “taking responsibility” all over Westminster very soon.