One of the striking things about the controversy concerning Peter Mandehslon is the seeming lack of curiosity at senior government level. Keir Starmer had indicated that he wanted Mandelson as the US Ambassador. A vetting process had been put in place. However, it remained the case that Mandelson was his personal, political appointment. Furthermore, Starmer knew that Mandelson was a risky appointment. He knew that he had been dismissed from government twice, he knew about his connections. It would surely have been more surprising if someone like Peter Mandelson didn’t have a vetting process come back with some risks identified. It was a high stakes decision to appoint him, presumably the PM concluded that the risk of choosing the former spin doctor over career diplomats was a risk worth taking but surely he would have wanted to take the risk.
Yet, it seems that the Prime Minister didn’t ask the questions. If I were asking him questions yesterday, or asking Olly Robbins questions today, that’s where my line of enquiry would go. I wouldn’t settle for questions about the process. I want to know if Keir Starmer asked to see the vetting and if not why not. If he did ask and was refused access to it, then surely his defence from the start of the scandal would be that ministers were excluded from the vetting process. This would mean that he would be able to say that he could not confirm that due process had been done, however, he could say that he had done due process at his end. However, one is left with the impression that he didn’t ask questions. He chose not to curious.
There are a number of fields of work where curiosity is viral. Good doctors, lawyers, journalists, historiansm engineers and politicians like to ask questions, especially who, what, where, how and why. They are curious. They ask what my wife likes to call “the inevitable follow up question.”
It’s a vital gift for pastors and preachers too. Good preachers as those “who, what, where, how, why?” questions of the text. They are curious about meaning and application. They love delving in deep, they don’t rest until they are satisfied that they have understanding.
Good pastors ask questions too. They don’t settle for the easy, surface answers they get during pastoral counselling. They want to understand where those they are counselling are coming from. They want to get to the bottom of why the person finds themselves where they are. Evangelists, for slightly different reasons will ask the same kinds of questions.
So, don’t give up asking questions and don’t give up on being curious.
Faithroots 