I don’t suppose it’s come as much of a surprise to anyone that an inquiry into the performance of the Treasury has concluded that, in his last years there, Gordon Brown “led from the top in splendid isolation”, as The Times put it crisply earlier this week.
The reviews, conducted by civil servants, public sector chiefs and external advisers, said that the Treasury failed to encourage teamwork, motivate staff or communicate with other departments, and suffered from poor leadership, a failure to inspire and a lack of humility.
It’s a damning list. Those in the know say that Brown is an autocratic manager who abhors criticism and is loath to accept another point of view, but in this he is not alone. Indeed,