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Cont: Brexit: Now What? The Perfect 10.

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Cummings will announce an overhaul of the Cabinet Office and No 10 next Monday.

The adviser has said his intention was to create a “smaller, more focused and more elite centre”, but his critics will suspect an effort to scapegoat the civil service

Dominic Cummings told political aides that a “hard rain is coming” after detailing the shortcomings of an “incoherent” Cabinet Office
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...civil-service-says-dominic-cummings-gcq79vcl0

Since when was it the job of an 'advisor' to make announcement on these things?
When did it become his job to re arrange the Civil Service?
When did we elect him?
 
McHrozni said:
True. It's not there yet but it's coming close like a driving train.
Doubly so if you count some of Covid-19 devastation in Britain as due to Brexit. This is impossible to separate with any degree of fairness but it's safe to say that without having to deal with Brexit, Britain would likely be better prepared for the epidemic and better able to take advantage of the common European policies.

If for no other reason then because someone more competent than BJ would likely be PM. This is not difficult to imagine, most farm animals would do better.

McHrozni
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An analogy with legs.

It takes a loonngg time to stop a train. Under the best of conditions.
 
The UK's top civil servant is resigning:

The UK's top civil servant, Sir Mark Sedwill, has confirmed he plans to stand down from the role in September.

In a letter to Boris Johnson, he said it was the right time to go as the government moved to the next phase of its coronavirus recovery plan.

His exit follows reports of tensions between him and senior members of Boris Johnson's team.

The senior civil servants' union, the FDA, said Sir Mark had been undermined in a "cowardly" way.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53210773

Many commentators are saying that Dominic Cummings is behind this as the first step of "gutting" the civil service to:

  • Make it smaller and replace parts of its function with unaccountable "advisors" (like Dominic Cummings)
  • De-skill the civil service to make it easier for politicians to force through change without experts being there to point out the flaws in those changes
  • Make it ardently pro-Brexit

IMO it doesn't matter how enthusiastic someone is about Brexit, it doesn't change the fact that a no-deal Brexit followed by a disastrous US trade deal is going to be a fiasco. :mad:
 
Dear truck drivers: Those crossing gate arms are made of wood. You are in a big truck. Drive the heck on through it!
Lots of good Brexit representations in that video, of course, to get back to the topic at hand.
 
Thinking of some people I encountered on "booze cruises" to France when I lived in Portsmouth I quite believe this. I still recall the couple who were furious that people in Cherbourg spoke French. Apparently that was "stupid".
 
P.J. Denyer said:
I bet there's thousands of Brexit voting ex-pats just starting to realise the same thing. I honestly don't have it in me to feel sympathy for them.
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We subscribe to a few expat forums and YT groups. You simply wouldn't believe the number of Brit expats, some admitted Brexit voters, who have been taken by surprise by the whole business and are suddenly asking for advice. Wondering why they can't travel freely to and fro ... how they can acquire residency rights when they have never bothered to apply for those rights ... wondering how they can gain Greek NHS rights or fix their totally neglected tax affairs.

Wankers. It's hard to feel any sympathy.
 
GlennB said:
We subscribe to a few expat forums and YT groups. You simply wouldn't believe the number of Brit expats, some admitted Brexit voters, who have been taken by surprise by the whole business and are suddenly asking for advice. Wondering why they can't travel freely to and fro ... how they can acquire residency rights when they have never bothered to apply for those rights ... wondering how they can gain Greek NHS rights or fix their totally neglected tax affairs.

Wankers. It's hard to feel any sympathy.
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But the promise of leave was all of the benefits and none of the costs of EU membership. How could anyone have known that suddenly free travel would end? Aside from anyone paying the least bit of attention.
 
GlennB said:
We subscribe to a few expat forums and YT groups. You simply wouldn't believe the number of Brit expats, some admitted Brexit voters, who have been taken by surprise by the whole business and are suddenly asking for advice. Wondering why they can't travel freely to and fro ... how they can acquire residency rights when they have never bothered to apply for those rights ... wondering how they can gain Greek NHS rights or fix their totally neglected tax affairs.

Wankers. It's hard to feel any sympathy.
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I'm torn, to be honest.

Yes, zero awareness on their side, but they were lied to by politicians and - and this is the kicker - the combined might of the UK press corps.

I know 'don't trust a politician' is a reasonable touchstone, but trusting a newspaper isn't really, on the face of it, the daftest propostion. Until you look a little further afield.

People shouldn't have had to go hunting outside of the mainstream press for accurate information about the biggest political decision of their lives. But, if you knew nothing to start with (not unresonable) then reading what are nominaly respectable newspapers would not have provided one with all the facts to make an informed decision.
 
3point14 said:
I'm torn, to be honest.

Yes, zero awareness on their side, but they were lied to by politicians and - and this is the kicker - the combined might of the UK press corps.
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No.
There were plenty of loud voices opposing this.
That they chose to go with the ones that confirmed their exceptionalist outlook is all down on them.

All it would have taken is a few moments of thought about the whole thing to realise leaving the EU meant leaving the ******* EU.
 
3point14 said:
I'm torn, to be honest.

Yes, zero awareness on their side, but they were lied to by politicians and - and this is the kicker - the combined might of the UK press corps.

I know 'don't trust a politician' is a reasonable touchstone, but trusting a newspaper isn't really, on the face of it, the daftest propostion. Until you look a little further afield.

People shouldn't have had to go hunting outside of the mainstream press for accurate information about the biggest political decision of their lives. But, if you knew nothing to start with (not unresonable) then reading what are nominaly respectable newspapers would not have provided one with all the facts to make an informed decision.
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I'm really fed up with the way "don't trust politicians/all politicians lie" is being used these days (Please note, I'm not saying you're using it this way), it's used as an excuse, both for their lying, and to justify there being no consequences to them for lying, and to shift the blame from the liars to the lied to. Politicians need to face consequences for lying (while accepting opinion, that people make mistakes and that everyone will seek to present facts in a way that benefit themselves, I'm referring to verifiable lies), rather than hoping the electorate will put the time and effort into fact checking everything they say (despite most of the newspapers they read going along with the lies).
 
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