The Cause of this Crisis? Leadership

Hierarchy v Self-responsibility

Disintegrating hierarchy will eventually be replaced by self-responsibility - but we are not there yet. Combine a lack of strong principled leadership from the ‘powers that be’ with a total absence of self-responsibility from the ‘victims’ and today’s outcome becomes inevitable.

Tony Blair’s leadership was and continues to be inept. His self-serving style damagingly set the tone for the rest of the country. Appalling leadership often punishes success and rewards failure.

Paul Moore former head of risk at HBOS would verify this. He informed his board of his concerns about the practices his companies practices but was later “summarily dismissed”. Four years on he was right but who kept their jobs? Poor leadership.

Blair might have fooled many with his silky rhetoric but his cabinet decisions give us an insight into how he led. The fact Gordon Brown listens to Ed Balls on economic policy means we don’t need any more analysis. This period in our history calls for responsible leaders not admirers of Niccolò Machiavelli or yes men.

Victim Mentality

The government are running about like headless chickens and will assure us that we are all ‘victims’, which is aimed at buying votes at the next General Election.

Unpleasant to hear but we are not victims but volunteers – the vast majority opted for this. If laymen saw the danger why on earth did they not force their government to take steps and head off the inevitable?

The government, now desperate to mitigate the consequences of its own failure, it is trying to inflate another bubble. Again poor leadership bereft of virtue - luckily it won’t work.

There is nothing like a sharp dose of reality to spike the New Labour illusion of wealth and prosperity. In its place society must create real value adding work led by principled men and women who genuinely care for something greater than their own material gain and status.

Optimism

It might surprise you to know that I’m optimistic. Whilst it’s sometimes it is unpleasant to face the truth, the recession has a cleansing function. Regulation will not stop the next boom bust, principled leadership coupled with a sense of duty just might.

You can have all the rules and regulations in the world but absence of virtue and an adherence to natural universal laws means one man’s greedy folly will keep punishing those who have to foot the bill but can least afford it.

- Ross Ashcroft

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