Message for Dominic Cummings and the dystopian Tory Government – As did Rasputin, your end will see you on the bottom of the River Neva in chains.
Two of the most important blogs posted by myself. A must-read
The Endless Attrition of Whitehall Civil Service
The Whitehall Civil Service model is being replaced by a system of ‘New Political Governance’ (NPG) centred on:
1. Politicized campaigning.
2. The burgeoning growth of political advisory staff relative to the permanent civil service.
3. The personalization of bureaucratic appointments.
4. The creation of a government machine that is ‘promiscuously partisan’.
Institutional changes are rapidly unfolding at a critical time, as Whitehall prepares to support Tory Ministers in carrying out the Brexit process while addressing a series of long-term structural challenges from the demographic pressures of an ageing society and the impact of climate change.
The Tory Government imposition of Austerity since 2010 has had a further transformative effect on Whitehall, with drastic reductions in the civil service workforce, the restructuring of government agencies, and a reconfiguration of the traditional roles and responsibilities of the permanent civil service. (The End of Whitehall? Patrick Diamond)
Jan. 2020: Baldrick Cummings launches blistering attack on meddling civil service hellbent on thwarting Brexit
At a meeting for ministerial advisers in Downing Street, Johnson’s strategy chief accused some mandarins of failing to grasp the Government’s vision of a clean break from the EU.
Cummings, who previously masterminded the Vote Leave referendum campaign, delivered his tirade at the regular Friday meeting for ministerial special advisers. He told them:
“The Government won the election on a very clear vision of our future relationship with the EU. But the process of setting up a new “Task Force Europe” under the Prime Minister’s chief Brexit negotiator David Frost has revealed resistance to a full break with Brussels among some pockets of Whitehall. It is clear from the discussions that certain members of the team have been having that not every part of the Government has fully absorbed that vision of our future relationship with the EU. Civil servants have to accept that the UK’s transition out of EU regulations, due to end on December 31, will not be extended. The Government will push for “a normal, third-country relationship-based, if possible, on a Canada-style free trade agreement”. The UK will leave the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union and will not align with Brussels regulations after Brexit.” (Express)
Number of SpAds passes 100 under Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson has expanded the government’s team of taxpayer-funded special advisers, with some being paid more than £100,000 a year.
Lee Cain, the director of communications, Sir Eddie Lister, the chief strategic adviser, and Munira Mirza, the director of the No 10 policy unit and co-author of the Tories’ 2019 election manifesto, are listed as the top earners, with a further four earning between £120,000 and £129,999.
Dominic Cummings, the chief special adviser to the prime minister, is paid between £95,000 and £99,999, according to details published in the Government’s annual report on special advisers.
The list shows staffing has increased from 99 full-time-equivalent employees under Theresa May to 108 under Johnson.
The prime minister’s personal advisory team has also expanded, with 44 members of staff now in place compared with May’s 37.
The total cost for SpAd staffing was £9.6m in the period from 1 April 2018 and 31 March this year, compared with £8.9m in the previous 12 months.
A government spokesman said: “Special advisers help ensure the government delivers on its election promises to the public like investing in the NHS and getting Brexit done. They protect the integrity and impartiality of the civil service by clearly separating out the provision of political advice to ministers. Opposition political parties receive almost £11m in taxpayer funding from Short Money and Cranborne Money in 2018-19.”
The total annual cost to the taxpayers is around £30m. (PoliticsHome)
caltonjock 
“Thanks Mainly Due to Near 400,000 English Voters Resident in Scotland That Omen is Fulfilled”
So how many of those 400000 actually voted?
In 2014 I took the view that it should be down to the Scots alone to decide, not the English nor the EU citizens living here.
So as someone born and raised in England (but with a Scottish parent) I chose not to vote.
If there is ever another referendum, then I’d again take that view. I’d say that only UK citizens born in Scotland and on a Scottish electoral roll should be qualified to vote. It is reasonably simply to implement that, anything more may be impractical to set up.
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May I refer you to my letter in The National 25/01/2020. There are many English people in Scotland who believe in independence, and many Scots who don’t. Why not blame the EU citizens for the No vote in 2014 as they voted to remain in the EU as advised by Better Together, an organisation run by Scots for Scots. As you can no doubt see, I find your comment both racist and offensive. I have been warning of the current and probable future state of affairs for some years now. Just because like so many working for the independence cause I was born in England, I have spent most of my life here in Scotland and expect to die here. Independence is a state of mind. You may blame politicians for it not happening in real life, but don’t just blame the English because you hate them.
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I dont hate the English but I do detest the “little England” political ideolgy that Westminster has imposed on Scotland for many hundreds of years. Westminster should, if it the wish of the electorate, retain its practices and customs but Scotland’s political phylosphy is and always has been so different and we cherish it. We need to be free of the shackles of the English monarchy, its class based society and all the evil it personifies.
I have no doubt there are some english born persons living in Scotland who voted for Scottish independendence. But they were heavily outnumbered by those who elected to remain with the Union.
The EU citizens who voted to remain with the Union did so on a promise hammered home to them by the scandalous “Better Together” that remaining with the Union was the only way in which their residence in Scotland would be assured since an independent Scotland would be banished from the EU.
EU citizens resident in Scotland learnt the hard way that English politicians are devious, lying hypocrites who will announce whatever ever it takes to achieve their political goals.
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I’m very glad that you don’t hate the English. I find the problem with the governance of Scotland, as with the governance of the rest of the UK, lies with that group of politicians, business leaders etc who have been educated at “public” schools, notably Eton College, and have a superiority complex, believing they rule over us by divine right because of their ancestors. I too wish to see the monarchy abolished and a republic established.
I should like to know where your figures for English voters voting No come from. I accept that there are probably a number of English people who have moved to Scotland to access the many benefits provided by the Scottish Government, but are perhaps stupid enough not to realise that these come only if they vote SNP and support the cause of indpendence. They are rather like those so called “ex-pats” who live in places like Spain but nethertheless voted for Brexit.
In 2014, Better Together was organised by Scots and supported by Scots, including members of my own family. I have had no evidence presented to me that it was the English voters who won the vote for No, so without empirical evidence any such statement is based on hearsay or wishful thinking. Likewise the idea that oldies such as my wife and myself chose to ruin our grandchildren’s future. My older stepson who deals with financial investments refused and still refuses to believe that the Scots are capable of running the economy as he believes it should be run, which is effectively in his mind best done by a Tory government at Westminster.
I wish you joy in your quest for Scottish independence, and hopefully I shall live long enough to see it
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Nice bblog thanks for posting
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