The Peter Principle strikes again
Lashings of gravy for former health secretary Patricia Hewitt:
She will work as a special consultant for pharmacy group Alliance Boots and as a senior adviser for private equity firm Cinven, according to information released by Whitehall’s advisory committee on business appointments.
Has anybody seen the share prices of those two companies since this announcement was made? When you remember Hewitt’s apocalyptic record as heath secretary, you have to wonder if it was Alliance Boots’ and Cinven’s rivals and competitors who were popping the champagne corks. I bet they sent her flowers.
Posted on January 19th, 2008 at 3:46 am
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How anyone would think she is a ticket to success is beyond me.
I doubt very much they’ll let her do anything important. She’s there for her contacts book.
She’ll be doing the introductions between company bigwigs and ministers. She’s the ice breaker, the hostess, the escort.
Like Blair for JP Morgan, she’s an essential link in the daisy-chaining.
They’re both privately held, so unfortunately no share-price-Hewitt-competence-indicator is available.
But EJH is right - they’re buying names, not skillz.
Wrong Justin, Johnners.
You wait ages for a Justin, and then it’s the wrong one. Well, that’s Patsy Hackitt’s NHS all over.
This is pretty cheap stuff. Patricia Hewitt almost certainly was hired for her contact book, but before she was a minister she was head of research at Andersen Consulting so it is not as if she’s a simple affirmative action hire.
I’d also note that the performance of the NHS during her time at the top (in terms of treating patients rather than what John Crippen thinks is its real purpose, the provision of cushy jobs for middle class 25-year olds) was very good and really is due for some revision.
Aw, bloody hell, Dan. You can’t turn your sardonicism on and off like a tap. Some of us get confused as to whether you’re messing with our heads or not.
Also, the words ‘Andersen Consulting’ aren’t necessarily going to win some of us over. I’ve seen them working up close and you might as well have used the words ‘World Wrestling Federation’ to try and convince me.
Sorry to both Justins - I wasn’t expecting JMcK to make a comment that destroyed the point of his original post.
And I wish Patricia had been head of research for the World Wrestling Federation…
Hey - come for the piss-poor jokes, stay for the inconsistency. When Christopher Hitchens does it they call him a contrarian and kneel before him.
where “they” = “cunts”, presumably?
Indeed. At least my cult of personality numbers only me.
And chunks of me, apparently.
Alliance Boots is a private limited company. It does not have a quoted share price, and hasn’t since it was delisted last spring.