But do you honestly still think your senior CS types really are apolitical?
Not since Blair came to power 23 years ago. ( hell, was it really that long ago?....)
But do you honestly still think your senior CS types really are apolitical?
No clue, but having the ability to remove senior CS is not always a bad thing. One just has to exercise common sense when doing so. But the folks at the top should be at will employees, as they can use their powers against those they don't support.Not since Blair came to power 23 years ago. ( hell, was it really that long ago?....)
But do you honestly still think your senior CS types really are apolitical?
Un pick up-able.I think a book by Mark Sedwill in the near future could be quite interesting.
It goes beyond compliance. Incompetence had the by-product of guaranteeing loyalty. If you know you're shít but you can carry on grabbing the wage or the pension for just another month... just another month... you'll do whatever it takes.A member of the Blairite stay-behind forces then. This is where Tony Blair screwed up - he picked compliant but incompetent people to do his bidding.
How much evidence is there that that’s the case, as opposed to it being what most politicians of any colour would like us to think.No we replace them with ones that once told what the governments plans are, make their objections and recommendations, then do what they have been told. Not as currently is the case, when the PM, is out sick, work to overturn government policy on Brexit.
By you measure, every incoming government will do the same so maybe I do.You don't think the policies of a previous government should be undone?
I don't think you have got the hang of this democracy lark.
Allegedly.
The PolSec whos overview I work under is a fanatical Remainer and openly and virulently anti Tory.
One Google search. I can't be arsed to refine it. But you can get the gist. Senior members of the CS, have consistently tried to stymie Brexit.How much evidence is there that that’s the case, as opposed to it being what most politicians of any colour would like us to think.
By you measure, every incoming government will do the same so maybe I do.
To be fair they were doing the bidding of their political mistress.One Google search. I can't be arsed to refine it. But you can get the gist. Senior members of the CS, have consistently tried to stymie Brexit.
An interesting comment from the Daily Unmentionable - captioning the Priti image:It looks like the story in the Torygraph is not without a basis in fact.
The Daily unmentionable and unpostable on here is running with the story.
I was just about to post a link, before I realised such action is verboten on here.
You all know where to look....
SPADs work for their ministers not the civil service. Once again, loads of posts from many ill-informed people about how government works, and certainly from.people with no experience of the Whitehall village. I have worked across Government on a number of multi-agency issues before leaving the forces a year ago, and since then as a consultant and I have never (I mean never) seen any evidence of the SCS or senior grades (6,7) attempt to undermine their ministers or their policies. I have seen seniors exasperated by policy proposals, but always followed by 'right, let's see how we can make this work.'Sadly that disappeared a very long time ago. The plethora of SPADS, and carefully selected appointees to key jobs has been ongoing for some time. The change in climate I witnessed between 1993 and 2003 was astonishing. That said, huge swathes of the civil service are unmoved by the political direction of travel. In these cases, however the influences have been effectively neutered
Hardly new and hardly Orwellian. All of these initiatives started in a Ministerial Office. Here is the Integrated Review Stakeholder map produced earlier this year.John Ward ran a good piece on Sedwill in his blog last month:
THE SUNDAY ESSAY: Sir Mark, his minions & the Shadow State now in control of Britain
A shoal of Orwellian names, a rapidly expanding Secret State empire – and a political élite seemingly powerless to stop it. Brief preamble: it seems I am now a Trump VIP – an opinion le…hat4uk.wordpress.com
Sedwill has managed to gain control of far too many of the control levers in Whitehall. With each one he's appointed acolytes (Andy Pryce etc) opposed to current Govt policies (esp. Brexit) and with their toes firmly embedded in many EU committees. It's not enough to just get rid of Sedwill, Cummings has to pick apart his entire network. Apparently, this useful diagram comes from UK Column - and as Ward notes, full of Orwellian double-speak (the Integrity Institute, the Institute for Statecraft etc.).
View attachment 485649
On BBC news - September... UK's top civil servant announces exitR4 news just now reporting that Sedwill is ‘reported to being ready to announce he’s standing down’ in the next few days.
Of course he’s going before he’s pushed !!!