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Boring Barber

Quentin Letts found himself in the same room as Michael Barber, Head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit last week. He didn't like it:

Barber's language was as lifeless as Monday morning mullet. He droned on about missions and cultures, milestones and trajectories, stocktakes and best practice. Thus was a potentially awkward morning for Mr Blair transformed into a pain-free presentational triumph. Prof Barber, with his cropped hair and Third Way regulation-issue dark shirt, was Labour's very own "quiet man". He completely anaesthetised the media.

Which is odd. Because Prof Barber (he was plain Mister then) used to teach at my old school (Watford Boys' Grammar - in case you're interested). One Friday afternoon he was invited to give a speech to a group of us Sixth Formers. He took as his theme: "A Workers' Revolution for the UK" (or some such nonsense) and then went on deliver an absolutely barnstorming speech - with absolutely no mention of stocktakes, milestones or best practice.

The real Michael Barber was a committed, passionate firebrand. This one is like suet pudding. It is difficult to believe it's the same person. What have they done to him?

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Nice piece Patrick, and once my Education Blog is back in predictable business I hope I remember to mention it there, because Barber wrote a huge and bad book about education.

I think the answer is that what both performances have in common is (a) that they were both performances, and (b) that they were both entirely appropriate for their particular occasion.

Actors don't just learn to blow each other off the stage, and Barber is clearly some kind of actor. They also learn how, in John Hurt's words when describing his acting job in the first Alien movie, how to "behave". Hurt's job (and remember Hurt can be as flowery as any actor alive - think Quentin Crisp!) in Alien was not to worry about being exciting, but just to let all that fantastical secenery do its job and for him not to get in the way of that.

And Barber's job was not to upstage the Prime Minister.

Posted by Brian Micklethwait on August 5, 2003