John Redwood

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Wokingham Times

22 October 2007

           I was asked to speak at a Trafalgar night dinner on 21st October. I decided to remind myself of some of the details of that comprehensive victory. The more I read about it, the more extraordinary it seemed.

           A British force of 27 ships of the line and four frigates sailed slowly and purposefully into the middle of the huge allied Franco-Spanish fleet of 33 battleships and five frigates. The enemy  fleet carried around 550 more cannons than the attackers, and included the three largest warships in the world in its midst. Despite this  Nelson’s men  never doubted they would win. Within a few hours they had captured or destroyed 19 enemy ships, with no ship losses  on the British side. Britain was rescued from the threat of French invasion and controlled the oceans for the remaining 10 long years of war.

             There were two crucial decisions at the Admiralty that underlay this success. Barham, the new First Lord, personally supervised getting many more ships afloat and prepared for action in England’s hour of need. He also decided to recall Admiral Sir Robert Calder who had failed to destroy the French fleet in his two day engagement with it, and went for the controversial option of  appointing Nelson, who had allowed the French Mediteranean fleet to escape from his blockade of Toulon and had lost them in the aftermath. We now know what brilliant judgements these were. Nelson himself inspired loyalty, courage and inventiveness in the Captains who served under him: none more so than Eliab Harvey, MP for Essex and Captain of the Temeraire. This ship, immortalised in Turner’s great painting of the end of her life, was second in the windward column into battle after Victory and soon had forced the surrender of two French ships that she took on simultaneously.

          There are lessons for our own day in these heroic deeds. Braham kept things simple at the Admiralty, personally writing as well as signing the orders and attending to all the detail necessary to make sure ships could be refitted and put to sea. When he decided to trust Nelson, he gave him full delegated power to choose his ships and Captains and order his battle as he saw fit.

        Modern public service leaders could learn from the combination of attention to detail and the use of delegated power to motivate and mobilise a public service. Fortunately our challenges today are different from those facing Barham and Nelson, but the principles of great leadership are the same. A leader needs to take responsibility, decide what he has to do for himself, and delegate the rest to people he can trust, who will themselves take responsibility. Too many of our modern public services are dogged by too many layers of management, by senior managers who look surprised when something goes wrong below and seek to distance themselves from the problem, and by junior managers who feel demotivated by the bureaucracy and decide to do things  by the book, however inappropriate that may be.

         We need to sweep away many of the targets, government guidance and consultancies that swarm like bluebottles around a dustbin, and give real power to schools, hospitals, Councils to get on and run the services they need to provide. Each one needs an inspirational Head or Senior medical consultant or Council Leader to communicate the vision of success, and give people beneath them the breathing space and the rewards so they deliver.