Whitehall – the place of ‘secretive networks’, a.k.a. sleaze

Well, I am astonished – surprised – amazed even: some reporters and editors in ‘Our MSM’ have dug up a very juicy bone indeed. No – it’s not another covid gaffe by the PM – it’s about Mandarin sleaze. Mind, the writers are very careful indeed in what they write, but even so! More on that below.

Firstly though, some quick covid ‘news’, namely BJ’s telling the nation that ‘Lockdown works’, and works better than vaccination. Surely we don’t need more proof of BJ’s scientific illiteracy, more proof that he’s being driven by forces who want lockdowns to continue, no matter what. This morning, Lockdown Sceptics has a whole segment refuting BJ’s claim, the author Will Jones concluding thus:

“The idea that locking down and keeping people apart will stop a virus spreading may be seductively intuitive. But intuitive ideas can be wrong. The job of science is to examine ideas and test them with evidence to see if they are more than just speculation. And the science here is clear. Lockdowns do not control the coronavirus.” (link)

Indeed so, and here’s an interesting little article in HSJ, the ‘Health Service Journal’, reporting on data from NHS England relating to covid hospital admissions:

“Weekly covid hospital admissions increased the day before the latest step in the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, according to analysis of NHS England data. There were 1,201 patients admitted with covid in the seven days up to 10 April, according to published figures. This increased to 1,220 in the week to 11 April. This is the first time this figure has increased nationally since 13 January and the third wave of the pandemic.” (link)

Let’s not ask if perhaps these admissions might be due to reactions to the vaccines. After all, haven’t we been told repeatedly that becoming ill after vaccination shows that the jab is doing its job? Instead, look at this:

“Nationally, it is a small rise in admissions, but it comes before the impact of the second stage of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown had filtered through into the data. Non-essential retail, gyms and leisure centres re-opened on 12 April, while pubs and other hospitality began serving people outside.” (link)

Keep this statement on file – it clearly indicates that lockdown doesn’t prevent covid and that moreover any rise in hospitalisation started before we irresponsible plebs were let off the leash and allowed to visit outdoor pubs.

And so to the ’Mandarin Sleaze’. Yes, I’m loving this! You’ll recall that Cameron was in the news about his lobbying of Sunak for some financial hand-outs for a firm, ‘Greensill’, which was going under ‘because covid’. The parliamentary anti-sleaze committee cleared him of having ‘done wrong’, but meanwhile  some reporters dug deeper and found something stunning. It’s irrelevant that they probably dug to find more evidence to throw at Cameron. It’s what they found and had to report which provides that juicy bone.

One of their findings pointed the finger at one of Cameron’s civil servants and now the Mandarins are clutching their pearl necklaces. The Times reports:

“Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, ordered all departments to tell him immediately if senior civil servants had paid roles or outside interests that might conflict with their main job. Case said there was “acute concern” at the top of Whitehall about the “serious issues” raised by revelations concerning David Cameron’s lobbying work for Greensill Capital, a financial company that collapsed last month.” (link, paywalled)

Disregard the ‘concern’ about Cameron’s lobbying – look at the mentioning of ‘senior civil servants’. This relates to a certain Mr Crothers who was also involved with Greensill:

“It emerged yesterday that Bill Crothers, a former Whitehall commercial chief in charge of a £40 billion annual budget, was given permission to work part-time as a director at Greensill in 2015 while still a civil servant. Case held a meeting with permanent secretaries of government departments yesterday, The Times understands. Senior figures present were said to have been “furious”, saying they could not understand why Crothers’s arrangement was permitted.” (link, paywalled)

Good lord – top mandarins couldn’t understand why Mr Crothers was ‘permitted’ to do so? Well, there’s amazing, innit like! It gets better, much better. The mandarins are in a flutter because the MSM are apparently ‘taking a closer look’, so it’s clearly not just about ‘Tory Sleaze’ as Starmer wants to make us believe:

“Crothers […] took a part-time board advisory role with Greensill Capital in September 2015 while he was still employed as a civil servant and went on to be a director of the company. In correspondence published on Tuesday, Crothers suggested that other civil servants had worked part-time for companies, describing his dual role as “not uncommon”. (link, paywalled)

So ‘other mandarins’ are also doing this – and ‘mandarins don’t know’ why this was permitted? Oh really? Next, see what the DM has dug up – not about ‘Cameron sleaze’ and ‘Tory sleaze’ but not unexpectedly about ‘Whitehall Mandarin sleaze’. This went right to the top. Don’t forget the date – this goes back to 2015, as far as we know. While there’s going to be an investigation instigated by BJ, here’s the carefully worded passage:

“A controversy which began with awkward questions about David Cameron’s vulgar lobbying activity for the firm has now snowballed into a wider scandal over a culture of cronyism and personal enrichment at senior levels of politics and the civil service. Importantly, the more we learn about this ugly affair, the more it seems that its key events took place on Heywood’s watch. Almost all of the major players were part of his inner circle. Several were brought into Downing Street at his behest. And — perhaps inevitably — the vast majority were among the power-brokers who attended Westminster Abbey to bid him farewell.” (link)

That’s why the DM so lovingly first reports on that memorial service for Sir Heywood, describing who all attended – the whole Westminster cabal, that is, caballing ever since TB. An interesting little snippet is that a certain Mr Hancock was also in attendance. Far be it from us to tar someone simply because of such association … ! There’s more. The Times writes in their editorial today:

“But it wasn’t Cameron who had talent-spotted Lex Greensill and brought him to a desk in the Cabinet Office. That was the legendary mandarin Jeremy Heywood, who had worked with Greensill during a stint at Morgan Stanley. Greensill had a big idea that Heywood wanted implemented. And such was Heywood’s clout in No 10 that Greensill found himself lobbying inside Whitehall for a new-sounding product — supply chain finance. Eventually Greensill would get a government contract to manage this and by then he would have on his payroll the former prime minister, on whose watch the system had been created.” (link, paywalled)

Ah. Doesn’t this look as if all that sleaze was ‘allowed’ to happen because the ‘Mandarin of Mandarins’, Sir Heywood, was tacitly permitting it to go ahead? Why are the current crop of mandarins now so agitated, telling The Times they don’t know how this could have been permitted? Remember – Sir Heywood died in 2018 and of course one mustn’t speak ill of the dead. But one might ask if all those mandarins lower down on the pay scale really had no inkling.

There must have been more to this ‘ultra-well connected web’ described by the DM which surely goes beyond Greensill’s CEO. It also puts Starmer’s outcry about ‘Tory Sleaze’ into perspective. One might call it ‘projection’ …

And while The Times carefully omits looking at any Heywood connections with Labour, they did dig out a lovely quote from the man they so hate, Dominic Cummings:

“In 2014 a former Conservative adviser wrote on his blog that in his view, such was the reliance of ministers on top mandarins, that “No 10 has now officially outsourced judgment of its own ethics”. Dominic Cummings continued, “This of course gives officials huge, hidden and unaccountable power. Heywood can give the thumbs up or thumbs down to Cameron himself on all sorts of sensitive issues (eg which billionaire came for dinner and was it all above board).”  (link, paywalled)

So if Cummings was right after all – was his demise perhaps orchestrated behind Whitehall walls, by mandarins fearful of losing their grip on politicians while trying to satisfy their secretive network of ‘influential industrialists and billionaires, using their network connections in the top editorial offices?

Is it permitted to wonder aloud if such secretive networks might also be behind the continuing covid-lockdown scandals, promoted from behind Whitehall’s walls?

KBO!