There is a bit of a problem with the civil service in all this

Simon Case is in over his head - no-one in that position asked to examine potential parties when he himself went to one should even think twice before recusing themselves; he was a political appointment frankly and is not up to that extremely difficult job.

Sue Gray is accountable to...whom, exactly?

All of which - very unfairly as most civil servants I know are as appalled as I am about all this - casts something of a shadow.

There is a context of constant rule avoidance/bad governance much of which is not from the Civil Service of course: "our guy" broke the conduct rules? Change the rules! Illegal prorogation? Stop Judicial Reviews! People protesting? Ban protests! Once upon a time the Civil Service would have stood fast against this kind of thing - even Thatcher had to persuade her mandarins to go along with her agenda, she didn't at all do it by diktat - but "Simon Case's Mob" seems far more cowed, and therefore complicit, I'm afraid. As I say I know that this is to the horror of a number of really quite senior mandarins.

Sue Gray shouldn't be doing the review, that should be a judge; judges are at least credibly independent, at least for now. That feels a bit unfair on Gray who's nobody's fool or shill, she's always been very much her own woman: but in the context of the murk at the top just now it's what should be happening.

And someone, somewhere needs to get a bloody grip and restore good governance. It's a habit we've got out of as a country and we need to get right back into it. There are very good people - Tories and Labour alike - who are capable of this. I hope one of them is in charge sooner rather than later.

Posted By: Old Man on January 12th 2022 at 15:10:50

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