Andrew Levi

This is the top of the front page of BBC News (via the iPhone app) right now.

This is the top of the front page of BBC News (via the iPhone app) right now ⬇️

Update (new from BBC):

Cabinet secretary frontrunner faced multiple bullying complaints www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I have no problem with that.

I disagree with you, for the reasons I’ve given.

There’s no need to take the Mail at face value. Where it hasn’t been denied, it’s basically true. Where it has been, the precise wording of the denial is worth looking at very closely.

My thread starts with the BBC link, then the Mail (on the basis outlined).

In what way?

She was made permanent secretary at the Home Office last year …

I recommend reading the public evidence. By all means discount what has specifically been denied (while being most careful to note the precise wordings used in such denials).

The Mail happens to give a good summary.

Channel 4 has covered it.

The BBC News piece is OK-ish, but leaves out much.

I thought I’d provided a pretty good set of the publicly available - where not denied, which it only has been on a very few points - evidence of what happened, in my thread. There’s no suggestion those things didn’t happen. Is there?

As for women, you evidently haven’t seen what I write about men.

Good 🧵 from @jackworlidge.bsky.social, pushing back on media suggestions the civil service tried to block Chris Wormald’s payout.

But, as @instituteforgovernment.org.uk
briefing shows, use of “ministerial direction” is a far from trivial matter.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/mi...

Wormald and Case, as I say, are good examples of why being the story is the kiss of death, and anyway completely inappropriate for a senior civil servant.

“Any man” is far from the truth.

This isn’t “just” (bad enough) “an” accusation of “bullying”.

That’s a misleading claim.

Case became the story (as cabinet secretary). It led to his v early departure (ill health, but would have had to go anyway).

Wormald (whom you also mention) became the story because he was being removed after the shortest cabinet secretary tenure ever.

I think these examples illustrate my point.

I share your concerns.

But that isn’t what happened here.

The BBC World Service is less than two months away from its funding running out.

What on earth is going on?

The entire UK diplomatic budget is about £1.4 billion a year. That’s pretty much precisely 0.1% of government spending.

BBC World Service is about £0.25 billion (it should be higher), or 0.02%.

These are rounding errors on rounding errors. Double each and public expenditure wouldn’t twitch.

Mad.

That, too, would concern me.

But it isn’t an accurate characterisation of the position.

Unless you can name some (in which case you’re a very unusual person) I don’t think I do.

Ministers are the leaders and the face of government.

Civil servants advise, warn if necessary, and execute.

Their public profiles should be zero (there are some extremely limited exceptions that).

Name any current Whitehall permanent secretary, or director general, or director (the top three civil service grades) who is currently the story.

Or even just name a handful of such officials (who aren’t in the running to be cabinet secretary!) at all.

No googling.

If I thought it’s because of gender, I’d agree.

But it isn’t. (I can’t speak every individual involved, of course).

We certainly mustn’t let the Mail decide who can be cabinet secretary. But it isn’t just them.

No senior civil servant can be allowed to be the story.

Other careers are available.

When you’re the story, you really can’t be a senior civil servant, let alone cabinet secretary.

Other jobs are available.

The Harvey Weinstein photo (screenshot attached from the 2020 Mail article), was taken in June 2017, before the October 2017 exposes in NYT and New Yorker.

Concerns about Weinstein’s behaviour were widely known before, including a reference at the 2013 Oscars ceremony, by the host, Seth MacFarlane.

Woman tipped for top No10 job caught up in bullying and expenses row A Whitehall high-flyer tipped to become the first-ever female head of the Civil Service was investigated for bullying staff and misusing expenses, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

I wouldn’t usually use the Mail as source, but key elements of this 2020 reporting are confirmed elsewhere and are at least part of the reason Simon McDonald (head of the Foreign Office at the time) has now intervened to warn that more due diligence is required.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Cabinet Secretary front runner Antonia Romeo previously spoken to about management style Dame Antonia Romeo was found to have no case to answer over one complaint nine years ago.

It’s hard to see how someone who’s the headline could be an effective cabinet secretary.

Discretion and an unimpeachable record are essential qualities.

(The same should be true for any civil service permanent secretary).

There’s more to this than reported here.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

(For anyone interested, road distance Land’s End to John o’Groats 838 miles; road distance Berlin (Brandenburg Gate) to Kyiv (Independence Monument) 867 miles).

Russia & war in Europe

Good discussion right now @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Worth noting that Berlin to Kyiv is the same distance as Land’s End to John o’Groats.

And the distance from the UK coast to the sea where Russia is already attacking critical UK & European infrastructure is approx 0 miles.

?

It has.

It was mad.

It remains mad.

You and I also know there’s plenty one could do to get more bang for buck.

Cutting the bucks isn’t it.

Nor (which comes to much the same thing) is being a prisoner of the Treasury.

The PM (like any PM) has to take a grip. Of strategy. Cabinet. Money.

Exactly. This is not a lot of money. And once destroyed you don’t get to rebuild it.

This. Since "Global Britain" we've thrown away one position after another on the foreign stage when it's never been so important.

The entire UK diplomatic budget is about £1.4 billion a year. That’s pretty much precisely 0.1% of government spending.

BBC World Service is about £0.25 billion (it should be higher), or 0.02%.

These are rounding errors on rounding errors. Double each and public expenditure wouldn’t twitch.

Mad.

The BBC World Service is less than two months away from its funding running out.

What on earth is going on?