@SamCoatesSky Want a story Sam? Here’s Tom sat 3ft away from Gregor Poynton at a Strand dinner - despite the clause in his contract preventing him from lobbying politicians
@Steven_Swinford We are not a serious country. How can a make-believe policy (Govt has offered zero actual detail on what the scheme will look like) lead the OBR to revise its make-believe projections, allowing the Chancellor to spend more make-believe money? 🤡
Instead of optimising for a world-class civil service, we now seem to be optimising for a *working class* civil service. This is what SW1 has always optimised for: when delivery and performance come into conflict with DEI, DEI will always prevail
Translation here is 12 months after the election the PM has woken up to HMT officials leading his govt’s agenda (c.f. winter fuel, IHT, welfare, NICs) while his Cabinet has been asleep at the wheel
@patrickkmaguire@Gabriel_Pogrund This quiet move by Starmer suggests he has identified an issue he wants to fix after the welfare bill.
It could be a very significant change. It might mean no repeat of the winter fuel/welfare cuts - and might also mean he pushes his govt in a new (more progressive?) direction
This is how most decision making has worked in the past year: the tendency has been to reach a “house view” before a call on any policy area is presented to the PM for a final decision.
You can see the necessity of streamlining the amount of information reaching the PM. But...