8,835
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
SW: →The hotel group: drinking and driving economic policy: - make existing text into links (wikify)
Numerous media reports over the years have claimed that, both before and after the 1997 election, much of Brown's policy making was conducted at Robinson's suite at the Grosvenor House hotel. The first media mention of the group appears in a ''Guardian'' article from 1998 about the scandal over [[Peter Mandelson]]'s home loan, which described Robinson as "...a fully paid-up member of the Brownite inner circle 'hotel group'".<ref>Seumas Milne, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/mandelson/story/0,,427471,00.html Mandelson: undone by a story that could not be spun]", ''The Guardian'', December 24, 1998.</ref> And ''The Guardian'' reported in 1999 that,
:"There were tensions in the aftermath of the election, with allegations that crucial decisions were being made by an inner circle of Brown confidants in Geoffrey Robinson's suite at the Grosvenor House hotel in London. Treasury officials, incuding the then permanent secretary, Sir [[Terence Burns]], were allegedly frozen out of policymaking decisions."<ref name="guardian9Nov99"/>
Bower puts it more colourfully: "Frequently, the shadow chancellor headed for the suite to enjoy pizza and beer with Robinson, [[Ed Balls]], an intelligent young economist, and [[Charlie Whelan]]... The 'hotel group' arrived with Brown at the Treasury on May 2 1997."<ref name="bower12May07"/>
In the 1999 ''Guardian'' article, [[Andrew Turnbull|Lord Turnbull]], at that time the permanent secretary to the treasury, offered a less than categorical denial of the group's existence: "I have never seen evidence of a so-called hotel group. If it ever existed, it had ceased to exist by the time I got here."<ref name="guardian9Nov99">Mark Atkinson and Larry Elliott, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/budget2000/article/0,2763,195482,00.html Brown's mechanics behind the machinations of government]", ''The Guardian'', November 9, 1999.</ref> In March 2007, Turnbull condemned Brown for his alleged "Stalinist ruthlessness", saying of Brown's relationship with his colleagues: "He cannot allow them any serious discussion about priorities. His view is that it is just not worth it, and 'they will get what I decide'. And that is an extremely insulting kind of process."<ref>Nick Timmins, "[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7a58bfa0-d6d7-11db-98da-000b5df10621.html Highlights of Turnbull interview]", ''Financial Times'', March 20, 2007.</ref>
