I was talking to the executive of a major energy company this week and he told me he had been in the job for 11 years.
John Hayes is the 13th energy minister he has had to deal with and I was the first.
To be fair, he pointed out, this total included two “doubles” who each did the job twice — but an average of one a year is still pretty impressive.
With just over two years in the role, I was one of the longer-serving.
So, too, was Charles Hendry, now departed in the recent reshuffle.
Nobody can work out why he was disposed of in such a cavalier way, since he was universally recognised in the industry as hard-working, knowledgeable and — quite unusual — genuinely interested in the industry.
He had covered the brief for two years in opposition, so he really knew the territory but, given the turnover in energy ministers, it seems that all such a CV qualified him for was the order of the boot.
It really is very silly. Energy is a complex subject of immense and growing importance to our national economy.
It is a department of government crying out for consistency and continuity of policy, yet this is the way it is treated — by whoever is in power.
By default, therefore, the civil servants become the masters of policy. They know that they will be there long after the latest transient energy minister has departed, so just wait for him to go and then do the things they wanted to do anyway.
What I find offensive about all of this is the disregard which it displays not only for a crucial national industry, but for the good and busy people who take the time to meet, brief and lobby ministers in the fond belief that they have a chance of influencing policy — or simply of making a contribution to how issues are viewed.
But no sooner have they done this than the revolving door is back in action and another minister is gone.
Good luck to John Hayes, but if he has any plans to make a difference, then he had better hurry.
Recommended for you
