No phones

This week the Prime Minister held a marathon cabinet meeting lasting seven hours, with ministers ordered to hand in their phones for the duration. I’m surprised this isn’t standard practice.

The point was probably to prevent unauthorised leaks and press tip-offs from this fractious group, but it’ll also have been useful for keeping their concentration on the urgent business at hand.

Some while back I started asking people in my programmes to leave their phones in a basket on their way into sessions, for that very reason. I was surprised and annoyed at how normal it was for grown-up executives to zone out and fiddle with their phones in the midst of a really important discussion.

Which, by the way, they were paying me to facilitate.

Because they had big issues with their team …

If you need to be present, then you need to be fully present. Half-there, half-not doesn’t work.

When I see the House of Commons practically empty for important debates, and what MPs there are lolling about on their phones, I sometimes wonder if it might explain, partly, why we’re in such a mess.

Anyway, at first some balked, but afterward everyone said it was a good idea.