Amidst the hullabaloo that is the Tory wannabe-PM show there were scant Brexit news. One piece though is very interesting indeed and shows again that we are being lied to by the Remainers in power. According to the Daily Mail – not paywalled – the EU actually has a solution to the Backstop, see here.
The report says that the EU has been preparing full out for a ‘No Deal Brexit’ – as have our civil servants – but not only must we not know about this, a No-Deal-Brexit must be denounced at all costs. It should be abundantly clear that Remainers want to keep us In for political reasons only and keep on harping about “The Economy” because that’s the only sort-of valid argument they have to keep us scared.
There is another piece of news – in RemainCentral, a.k.a. The Times – which is astonishing. I am quoting at length because both article and opinion piece are paywalled, but we all need to know.
The report throws a light on the poisoned chalice the May-successor is being handed. It doesn’t matter who it is – even ‘The One’ who is now supported by the wimmin ministers: “Cabinet women endorse Jeremy Hunt as a serious contender” (link, paywalled). The Mandarins will have him under their thumbs:
“Britain’s most senior civil servant will hold talks with the last two contenders in the Tory leadership race as Whitehall gears up for a change in the government’s Brexit strategy. Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, has received permission from Theresa May to hold discussions with the two candidates who reach the final Tory leadership election shortlist to discuss their priorities if they win.” (link, paywalled)
That looks innocent enough, doesn’t it. But – why leak this now? When one delves into the report, one finds the reason:
“Mr Johnson has made clear he wants to see changes in the Brexit negotiating team. […] Mr Johnson has told friends that if he gets to No 10 his priority will be to take on the Whitehall establishment and shake up the government machine. Over the weekend, he pledged to bring in an entirely new team to negotiate with Brussels, and put ministers rather than civil servants in charge. “It’s shooting ourselves in the foot – typical Boris attitude to replace experts with showmen,” one insider said. One senior figure said that Sir Mark would make it clear to Mr Johnson that the civil service would carry out the instructions of the elected government but would not change its private advice to ministers. “The No 1 message from Mark Sedwill will have to be – our job is to tell you the things you don’t want to hear,” a Whitehall source said.” (link, paywalled)
Ah – things like “The EU won’t like it so it can’t be done”, perhaps? This is the first, public acknowledgement that Whitehall is the culprit for the Brexit mess. It also shows that those Mandarin ‘sources’ seem to think that only two candidates have a chance – BoJo and Hunt. We can all guess whom they would prefer, especially now that he’s been endorsed by wimmin …
Let me make it perfectly clear that there are many civil servants in Whitehall who are Leavers, who kept us informed with various, very important anonymous articles. They have been doing their best in spite of the official Remain Policy from the top Mandarins. They should be lauded!
We’re seeing a concerted intervention by Whitehall in what is an inner-party decision, demonstrated by the various quotes from ‘friends’ and ‘sources’ in the accompanying opinion piece in The Times (link, paywalled), with this perfect summary: “Senior civil servants are preparing for a Johnson premiership but determined to resist any move to a no-deal Brexit”.
Suspicious as I am I wondered why those Mandarins have come out with this well-orchestrated initiative now, when the voting hasn’t even started. It couldn’t be, could it, that they hope to influence Tory grassroots to think again about voting for BoJo? Surely not:
“There is growing concern in Whitehall that Mr Johnson, the Conservatives’ Lord of Misrule, could soon be in No 10. One senior figure said that Tory MPs would be deeply “irresponsible” to put him on the shortlist, knowing he is the darling of the grassroots and so is likely to get elected. “The number one message from Mark Sedwill will have to be ‘our job is to tell you the things you don’t want to hear’,” says a Whitehall source. “It is about speaking truth to power. That’s going to make the cabinet secretary extremely unpopular.” (link, paywalled)
“Speaking truth to power” – that lovely lefty mantra. It makes me sick every time I hear it! If that childishness is symptomatic for our top-level civil servants … But we’ve seen who has the power, and it wasn’t the PM or the Brexit ministers! There’s more, and worse:
“As foreign secretary Mr Johnson was widely despised by his officials who complained that he was lazy, did not read his papers, paid too little attention to detail and lacked seriousness.” (link, paywalled)
‘Lazy BoJo’ against ‘serious Hunt’ … interesting. We can see who the preferred Whitehall candidate is – the one thoroughly domesticated by his Whitehall handlers. It gets better:
“[Boris] has told friends that, if he gets to No 10, his priority will be to take on the Whitehall establishment and shake up the government machine. Over the weekend he pledged to bring in an entirely new Brussels negotiating team, and put ministers rather than civil servants in charge. “It’s shooting ourselves in the foot — typical Boris attitude to replace experts with showmen,” says one insider.” (link, paywalled)
There’s the reason for this unprecedented public intervention by Whitehall ‘friends’ and ‘sources’! And now we know what Mandarins think of our elected representatives … what arrogance!
Here are more bits showing why Whitehall intervened, straight from the horses’ mouths. You recall that ‘leaked’ paper earlier this year which came from Mark Sedwill himself, according to which we’ll all die if there’s a no-deal Brexit? Look at this:
“Whitehall sources insist that he [Sedwill] will deliver exactly the same advice to the new prime minister. “The facts are the facts on no-deal. Boris thinks he has some kind of magic that can deliver something nobody else has managed, but it’s almost the opposite. Boris is so disliked that we will be doing well to hang on to what we’ve got.” (link, paywalled)
Ah – ‘don’t vote Boris because we dislike him in Whitehall’ – now that’s a valid political argument – not! Are they really so afraid of him? It would seem so, here’s more:
“Would Mr Johnson go against the advice of his cabinet secretary, who is also the national security adviser, on a question of such critical importance just weeks into his premiership? If he did, what would Sir Mark do? The cabinet secretary has already made clear his displeasure about Conservatives putting party concerns before the national interest by highlighting the partisan nature of some cabinet discussions in his minutes.” (link, paywalled)
Well, where Sedwill is right he’s right: ego before Party before Nation is an abomination – but what about ego before Whitehall before Nation? That’s different, innit:
“Some in Whitehall fear that Mr Johnson, or another hard Brexiteer leader, could try to oust the head of the civil service, or downgrade his role so that he concentrates only on his national security brief. “We will be watching out for politicisation,” says a senior figure. “It would be a signal of that if they tried to move him and set a dangerous precedent.” (link, paywalled)
Oh dear … And then there’s this absolutely jaw-dropping statement:
“Cabinet appointments will send a crucial message. If, for example, Jacob Rees-Mogg is put in charge of the Treasury, whose officials he has accused of “fiddling the figures” in Brexit forecasts, it would be seen as a declaration of war by Whitehall.” (link, paywalled)
Let that sink in! Whitehall Mandarins going to war against our elected representatives? Really? Are they running our country for themselves only?
Then I read this last wail:
“We have dealt with so much change already,” one permanent secretary says. “It’s constant turbulence, which is unsettling for the civil service and destabilising for the country. We are just getting ready for anything now. This is the new normal.” (link, paywalled)
I ask myself why they didn’t get ‘ready for anything’ a bit earlier, say three years ago? It’s obvious now though that the metro-elite, the Establishment inside the M25, are perfectly happy with this state of affairs: Mandarins govern the country in congenial collaboration with Brussels, and the ‘elite’ can continue with their own hedonistic posturing: no worries, no consequences …
It’s time to ask: who governs this country? Answer: not the government, not Parliament, but Whitehall, as their own statements show. Our sovereignty is not just threatened by Brussels – it has been usurped by the unelected Mandarins. This is out in the open now, they can no longer hide.
Shout it from the rooftops: not just Parliament, Whitehall as well needs to be shown forcefully who the sovereign is. That’s us, the voters. Remind them, incessantly and relentlessly.
KBO!
from PMB I think we are ruled by Brussels via Whitehall.
Well, that Corbyn motion we mentioned above has been defeated. from the DT:
“The Government has defeated an attempt by Jeremy Corbyn to block a no-deal Brexit, winning a significant vote in the Commons by 309 votes to 298.”
Is this a recognition at last by parliament that it is curtains for both parties if Brexit doesn’t,t go through
Watch Leadership candidates talking about removing the NI Backstop, which they hope to trumpet as a success.
But that is just more spin and deception because the WAB will remain a trap – with or without the NIBS.
Don’t believe it? Just read these clauses from the WAB:
a) Article 7 of TMay’s proposed WAB includes the words “All references to Member States shall include the U.K.”
b) Article 5(3) of the TEU says that “The Union is justified in exercising its powers when Member States are unable to achieve the objectives of a proposed action satisfactorily.”
c) Transition was supposed to end in 2020, but TMay seems to envisage an extension to 2022, while Art. 132 says that it can be extended up to ‘31-12-20XX
While International Treaties such as NAFTA and NATO have unilateral escape clauses, the proposed WAB does not.
Without such a clause the WAB would remain a trap and it looks unlikely that any of the candidates will get such a clause. Just keep watching like hawks. A WTO exit is now the only realistic way to deliver Brexit,
May has said she will present the WA to Parliament once more before the summer. Stupid or what?
Is the Joint Council business still in there?
Cracking article Viv – thank you so much. Have put it everywhere I can – hope others do the same.
-““Mr Johnson has made clear he wants to see changes in the Brexit negotiating team. […] Mr Johnson has told friends that if he gets to No 10 his priority will be to take on the Whitehall establishment and shake up the government machine. Over the weekend, he pledged to bring in an entirely new team to negotiate with Brussels, and put ministers rather than civil servants in charge. ”
But isn’t all this ‘smoke and mirrors’? Or just downright lies? Because the EU have stated in no uncertain terms that ‘the deal is the deal’ and it is not open to negotiation.
It is the ‘Theresa May Withdrawal Agreement’, or nothing.
And Viv, you ask “It’s time to ask: who governs this country? Answer: not the government, not Parliament, but Whitehall, as their own statements show. ”
The other answer to your question is ‘Common Purpose’ and their ‘change agents’ who have infiltrated the Civil Service (Whitehall) and are now guiding, advising and instructing ministers on how to act, rather than the other way around.
The truth is that it doesn’t matter which party is in power in government, or which people are ministers in various government departments, nothing is going to change until the ‘Common Purpose’ problem is correctly identified and dealt with.
Viv please watch your blood pressure, mine is always high but just about under control, it must be worse for you collating all this information so we don’t have to. Thank you very much to you and Debbie.
Was sorry to hear you were “laid up” again Viv and glad to see you back , and, in form. Gee whizz!
Fine forensic form I would say!
You`ve really joined the dots this time, so much so that I think your column should have the heading “Betrayal and the CONSPIRACY behind it”
For that is what it now plainly (and becoming evidentially) is.
Unfortunately its beyond my pay grade to trace origin, but it`s as Debbie says below, confirmation of our suspicions are now appearing as proven facts
.
I believe it is up to us (I doubt anybody else is going to do it) to join the threads and dots into a narrative to be presented to court, no idea which one, could even be a terrorism one “Conspiracy to cause terror among grass root voters in order to conceal the fraud perpetrated on them by their pseudo slave masters”.
I can only make guesswork that the conspiracy has a common thread and that is “Common purpose” stretching all the way down from the EU itself and possibly even from the UN in the guise of World Government, but certainly there is a plot emanating from the EU that Brexit should fail; either the UK is tied virtually forever in a BRINO or Clause 50 is rescinded and we REMAIN (Slavery sine die) Dirty mendacious dogs.
Anyway best wishes Viv we need you!
And now Gove is saying the same thing:
“There would be a vote of confidence in the House of Commons that the Government would lose, there would be a general election. We would have Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street by Christmas.”
Why are the Tories so scared of a General Election? Could it be because they know they will lose because their MPs simply don’t reflect the will of the people?
Jeremy Hunt has been quoted as saying:
Parliament has made clear its intentions to take No Deal off the table, no matter what the new prime minister says or does. So without a deal any prime minister who promised to leave by a certain date would have to call a general election to change the parliamentary arithmetic. And that is an election we would lose badly.”
I do wish someone would ask him why he would lose so badly. To us the answer is clear. I wonder if he’d admit it.
How often do I have to remind Brexiters that the ‘Hard border in Ireland’ is an EU issue, not the UK’s. To argue that the UK ‘has to find a solution’ is an EU RemaINers theme and nothing to do with Brexit. The pretence is that the EU would not give us a FTA without this issue being ‘fixed in advance’ when in fact a FTA is the simplest solution – which indicates that the EU is negotiating in Bad faith and has no intention of giving the UK an FTA but only a form of BRINO.
Totally agree with your comments Suthringa. Recent articles in the MSM report that the EU has been working on a tech solution to the border problem, and also, that it can be implemented rapidly in the case of a No Deal Brexit. This proves that the EU has not been negotiating in good faith and therefore the current WA and its Backstop provision should be declared invalid.
Barnier was so clever asking the UK negotiators what they were going to do about Ireland, and our side went back and tried all sorts of answers, all of which the EU rejected, when they should have said: “It’s not our problem, it’s yours.”
Back and on form!
There is a relentless edging towards exit.
The WA has hit a brick wall. May has been destroyed. The lack of Conservative integrity has been exposed. The dishonesty and foolishness of Labour has become evident. Now the sly and treacherous Whitehall mandarins are outed. Like a battering ram working from the inside and moving relentlessly towards the locked door.
We will be free.
It has been suggested that the British have a piratical nature. How will the Germanic and Franco mind-sets deal with or indeed understand, the ducking, weaving, dodging and diving of British politics? All our politicians have blood on their hands and knives in their backs, it appears to be a given. They fall well below mere arrogance and deceit.
Have we been naïve with manifestos? Should they contain somewhere near the top, “Clear out the swamp of Whitehall”. ,
Will Boris be the hero? If he is clever he will have the sense to play hero. But in the end we all know what he is along with the rest of them.
It should not be forgotten that the head of the Civil Service has 480,000 dedicated supporters whose wages he controls ( and more importantly pensions )in every corner of the country and world.. AND, they are organised !., This is unimaginable power of a world class.
I think that daily the word ” Elite ” comes gradualy to be better defined.
The slurs and snide put-downs are coming thick and fast. They must be deeply worried.
BTW, I didn’t see The Civil Service Mandarin Party standing in Peterborough.
Why should they Phil? They have plenty of power without having to go through an election.
WOW!! These are some really illuminating quotes, Viv. It brings out into the open matters and opinions that we all thought existed but of which we never had confirmation – that it was the Whitehall ‘Sir Humphreys’ who actually ran the country, rather than our elected politicians.
And of course, those in positions of power don’t want to lose that power so they’re fighting, and they’re fighting dirty! To my mind, the fact that Boris has threatened to ‘drain the swamp’ of civil servants is the reason they’re accusing him of not doing his job properly when he was foreign secretary. Yes of course, he may have been lazy and didn’t read his papers properly but it may also be that these mandarins are inflating his detrimental attitude just to put the Tory grassroots off voting for him. If I were a grassroots Conservative, such comments would endear me to him, rather than put me off.
Apart from being the darling of grassroots Tories because of his pro-Brexit and no-deal promises, Boris seems to have hit the spot with others who see the influence of the Whitehall mandarins over their political ‘masters’ to be far too powerful and needing to be culled.
Boris Johnson is a very clever man. He puts over the facade of a chump, a buffoon with his long blonde hair and silly stunts, but he is exceptionally politically astute. Desperate to get into Downing Street, he has well sussed out that to be elected by members of the Tory party he needs to be pro-Brexit and no-deal, and also to show he is willing to curb the power exercised by civil servants who were granted that power by Mrs May. My only proviso is that he may have created this veneer of himself in order to please those who might elect him into No. 10 and when he gets there, he might revert to his natural state. What that is he has not shown us.
It’s not only the civil service that has been allowed to get well above their station, it’s rife in local government and all the public services, it’s what happens when like is allowed to recruit like and then to show just how competent and experienced they are pay the upper echelons salaries that in their wildest dreams would they ever earn elsewhere. Remember ‘// working towards equality’ , ‘working in partnership,’ ‘working together for you’, and all the other rubbish. The chickens are coming home to roost, and then watch the disruption and the ‘disrupters’ and change agents push for what they have worked for all along. Plenty of models to choose from NHS, Education, Home office and so on. Time for the people to wake up but don’t bank on it as hundreds of thousands work for the civil and local services.
Watching this leadership pantomime is enough to make anyone vomit, just the sight of the faces of these people is enough to make you despair: maybe that’s the whole idea.
The Whitehall Bureaucrats bypassing our (sic) elected representatives to deal directly with Brussels I think has been the intention all along. As we loose confidence in our mainstream political parties, they’re losing their grip on power, becoming increasingly ineffective, unless some other party comes long (perhapsThe Brexit Party), one day soon they’ll collapse or become a Government In Name Only (GINO) and we’ll be ruled by Brussels via Whitehall; it probably is already the case.
I think this has been the plan all along, it seems that treason is the new normal. Rope and lampposts anyone?
No chance Flyer, only with the correct Health and Safety protective clothing along with a full risk assessment! I Like GINO, goes with law making by GINA! Just out of interest the last person tried for Treason was a then teenager who fired six blank cartridges at the Queen in the 80’s sometime, he got five years and served three in a psychiatric institution.