The Covid Inquiry has exposed Whitehall’s lack of grip
After a period on the margins of public attention, the public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic has returned to the foreground with the delayed appearance of the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case. He had been due to give evidence to Baroness Hallett’s review last October, but had to take medical leave from his position and only returned to work in January this year.
Case’s role in the pandemic is critical. In May 2020, as the crisis unfolded, he was appointed Downing Street Permanent Secretary and tasked with ‘supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet in developing and implementing the government’s coronavirus response’. A few months later, then Cabinet Secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, was eased out of his role by Boris Johnson and to general astonishment, Case was appointed to replace him as Head of the Civil Service and the Prime Minister’s Principal Official Adviser. He was only 41, the youngest ever Cabinet Secretary, and had never run a Whitehall department.
Johnson's fault? Possibly, but presumably Case could have turned down the appointment as beyond his level of experience.
The Cabinet Secretary admitted to problems in many areas. The relationships between Cummings, Sir Edward Lister, Johnson’s Chief Strategic Adviser, and the two senior civil servants in the Prime Minister’s private office, Martin Reynolds and Stuart Glassborrow, were ‘very bad’, and ‘that did not help at all’. This toxic atmosphere had wider consequences for Downing Street staffing: a WhatsApp message from Case said ‘Good people [were] being put off… because it is such a rat’s nest’.
After a period on the margins of public attention, the public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic has returned to the foreground with the delayed appearance of the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case. He had been due to give evidence to Baroness Hallett’s review last October, but had to take medical leave from his position and only returned to work in January this year.
Case’s role in the pandemic is critical. In May 2020, as the crisis unfolded, he was appointed Downing Street Permanent Secretary and tasked with ‘supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet in developing and implementing the government’s coronavirus response’. A few months later, then Cabinet Secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, was eased out of his role by Boris Johnson and to general astonishment, Case was appointed to replace him as Head of the Civil Service and the Prime Minister’s Principal Official Adviser. He was only 41, the youngest ever Cabinet Secretary, and had never run a Whitehall department.
Johnson's fault? Possibly, but presumably Case could have turned down the appointment as beyond his level of experience.
The Cabinet Secretary admitted to problems in many areas. The relationships between Cummings, Sir Edward Lister, Johnson’s Chief Strategic Adviser, and the two senior civil servants in the Prime Minister’s private office, Martin Reynolds and Stuart Glassborrow, were ‘very bad’, and ‘that did not help at all’. This toxic atmosphere had wider consequences for Downing Street staffing: a WhatsApp message from Case said ‘Good people [were] being put off… because it is such a rat’s nest’.
8 comments:
I’d argue that Whitehall had an iron grip on applied incompetence manifesting as apparent blithering idiocy.
James - I agree and it isn't anywhere near to being as widely reported as it should be. We hear about disasters such as HS2, but not enough on the bungling behind it.
The Mail seems to have some info relevant to Starmer's prolier-than-thou grift:
Revealed: Sir Keir's family castle! The Labour leader talked about rural poverty in his childhood. He didn't mention that his grandfather lived in Marden Castle - and his great-uncle was chairman of the Godstone Conservative Association.
dearieme - interesting, not a clogs and whippets background from the sound of it.
My brother had a lengthy career in the Civil Service. He's in his late 70s and obviously no longer knows the insider gossip. But I remember him commenting when Simon Case got the top job. He said he was a nobody, talentless and lacking integrity.
Sam - while reading the piece I wondered who eased him into the job. I've no evidence, but I wondered if he impressed Dominic Cummings as the Cummings brand of flimflam man.
I'm coming to the conclusion that 'government' is actually the Civil Service, and that whichever idiot is voted in for some obscure reason, that person will probably be clueless, unused to commercial experiences and generally a waste of space.
Career politicians very rarely do anything constructive and if they did, it would be hauled down by the silent CS mob in Whitehall!
Scrobs - I agree, without stronger influence on the Civil Service we are wasting our time voting.
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