When heads shouldn't roll

Why do we always fire someone when things go wrong? Why not make them stay and sort the mess out?
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This has been a good year for those who like a good sacking. From Baby P and Terminal 5 to the BBC, heads have rolled to satisfy the public demand for a scalp. Blame culture is on the up and now the Speaker of the House of Commons is in the firing line.

These days, more than ever, when something goes wrong someone has to go. People don't even want to wait for an inquiry or investigation but within days, hours even, a combination of tabloid frenzy and corporate fear requires someone to be offered up.

This culture has to stop. On most occasions, we sack the very people who had nothing to do with the mistake. Or, if they were in part responsible, by removing them we take away the one individual very unlikely to cock up again.

The Speaker and serjeant at arms are probably guilty of little more than their failure to spot a political hot potato. They are now better positioned than most to tighten up the rules and stop it happening again. It would be daft to bring in a new inexperienced Speaker or serjeant at this stage.

How are people ever expected to learn if we don't even give them a chance to explain themselves? Last week during the speaker's statement he looked quite shaken to me and at one point made a very interesting remark to some Conservative heckling. He turned, looked at the culprit, and said very clearly that for four days he hadn't had the chance to go to the media.

This is what it comes down to more and more. Who gets their story in first, who gets to the papers and the 24-hour TV stations to get the ball rolling hoping that their message is the one that will be spinned out. And you know in politics there are only two things that are taken into any decision – do you accept the blame yourself or do you try to shift it elsewhere?

The last year has seen the headlines telling the story of broken careers and oustings. The head of BBC Radio 2 ended up taking the can for Ross and Brand's behaviour. Was it just me who could hear the wood of the bandwagon creaking as politicians jumped aboard? Ross and Brand are grown men, they can take care of themselves.

But no, we aren't happy with that, we wanted more scalps, bigger scalps. Surely someone must be to blame? And what happens when everyone loses interest and moves on to the next story? Nothing. The system stays the same with different people running it. At the end of the day when the dust settles all we have is one more person out of a job.

Exhibit C, Heathrow Terminal 5, the bosses sacked after the media and some VIPs lose their baggage. Everyone now agrees it is a great terminal but that's not good enough. Thanks for the terminal, it looks great, but it didn't run absolutely perfectly without a flaw – so sorry, you will have to go.

We need people who have been through problems, who know how to deal with a crisis. We need people who, when something goes wrong, can find out why. They are best placed to get to the bottom of the problem and make changes. But everyone is obsessed by finding out "where the buck stops". We thrive over failure, get excited by disaster.

Someone leaves the details of X million people on a CD or a disk on the train. Politicians of all colours feign shock – how could this be? Someone surely must go, this just shows how X department is rotten to the core. Uh, no it doesn't. It means someone left a CD on a train. Let's stop it from happening again not cull the department.

In the states I have been speaking to head hunters. Over there the culture is slightly different – they regard my own resignation and how I messed up as a positive thing. As one said if you've been through that and survived I guess you could cope with most things.

And don't get me wrong I'm not arguing that there should never be any heads rolling, or that there won't be times when someone is responsible. Sure we need to preserve individual responsibility – cause and effect. But let's stop jumping to conclusions.

Now take a look at Peter Mandelson. Thrown out of cabinet not once, but twice. How can anyone recover from that? Well, Lord Mandelson seems to be doing OK. Love him or loathe him you have to give him credit for the job he does. He is one of the most gifted politicians of our time. Labour keep going back to him because they need him, they know he has strengths. I don't think it's all that surprising really. He is good at his job, plain and simple.

So maybe, just maybe, this demonstration of political maturity shows that those who like to dish out blame don't have everything their own way. RBS they tell me that 500 grey hairs are being brought back into the company. Why? Because they have been through a recession before, of course, and they are the best people to get us out of it.

So next time something goes wrong the appropriate punishment is to tell someone: "We aren't going to sack you and give you a big payout. Instead, you are staying to sort this mess out." Stranger things have happened.

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