The Peter Principle in action?

According to Ann Treneman in The Times today regarding our Home Secretary Jacqui Smith - "There was only one problem and, technically, it had nothing to do with her. Her problem was her facts. They let her down. She didn’t have the ones she needed and the ones she did have seemed to have escaped from an entirely different side of the argument. This problem first became obvious when Keith Vaz, the extremely grand and oleaginous chairman, noted that the consultation period over whether to extend the 28-day pre-charge detention period to 42 days had now ended. There had been 71 responses. So, he asked, how many had favoured extending the limit?

“Six did!” said Ms Smith. Six? Never has a number seemed more inadequate. There were more people in her entourage than those in favour of extending precharge detention. Her policy didn’t even have the gravitas of a bus queue. She looked utterly unperturbed by this, although she may have been swearing inwardly.

The session lurched along like a wonky wheelbarrow. She admitted that there had not been one case in which the police had asked for more than 28 days. She said this jauntily. There was, she insisted, a potential risk they would need more in the future."

Do read the rest.


The Peter Principle states that "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."