A Whitehall ‘palace revolt’ is brewing …

 

This morning the print editions of our MSM have one theme only: the return of the Queen’s coffin to London, to Buckingham Palace (link). I briefly watched the live coverage: wherever they could, people were lining the roads where the hearse passed, in the dark and rain. Seen from far away, the much maligned smartphones, held aloft, gave the impression of people holding candles. 

It seems inevitable though that there’s always one idiot, be it in Edinburgh, be it in front of Buckingham Palace, who feels the urge to whoop as loudly as possible – why? Worse: why is it that there’s always someone writing for or talking to MSM ‘journalists’ feeling the urgent need to ‘warn’ or be ‘outraged’? 

The ‘outrages’ which have found their way into the online editions are, firstly, about inheritance tax which King Charles allegedly ain’t paying (link, paywalled link). Tax avoidance is legal, btw. So why do these campaigners not campaign against Inheritance Tax altogether? Where are their outcries about the horrendous waste of taxpayers’ money? Moreover – isn’t it beyond rude to campaign on this issue during the period of mourning, before the Queen has been put into her grave? 

Then there are the various small outrages regarding the shutting-down of shops and services on the Bank Holiday, the day of the Queen’s funeral (link). Yes, well: this day has been declared a Bank Holiday, so why do people expect everything to function as if it were a normal day?

Of course, the Sacred Cow just had to come out with a ‘warning’. Under the headline “Bank holiday for Queen’s funeral adds to NHS backlogs”, The Times reports that “thousands of NHS appointments have been cancelled on the day of the Queen’s funeral next week.”(link, paywalled). It’s as if the NHS grasps now at any excuse for their deplorable backlogs! 

It’s news to me that on other Bank Holidays hospitals are working ‘normally’, with appointments being kept, that pharmacies and GP surgeries work ‘as usual’ during other Bank holidays? That’s news to me! There’s more, which made me feel somewhat outraged:

“Health chiefs have called for confirmation that the government will fund bank holiday pay for doctors, nurses and other staff who do work. […] NHS bosses say practical considerations have given them no option but to cancel some clinics. With schools closed, many staff have no alternative childcare. In London, where large trusts have postponed most planned appointments, there are fears that gridlocked roads may make it hard for patients or workers to get to clinics.” (link, paywalled)

How amazing: NHS chiefs are concerned about childcare for their staff now, but weren’t during the lockdown. They are concerned about gridlocks because of the immense queues of people wanting to pay their respect to the Queen but weren’t when ‘Climate extremists’ brought London to standstill during their extreme protests.

Do they, do all those other ‘outraged’, would rather that people were told to lock themselves down and not line the roads, not go and pay their respects so that the Sacred Cow, shops and ‘services’ can work in their accustomed ‘comfort’? Crikey!

There is a first hint for the desire of TPTB, including NHS chiefs, to make people stay away. The DT has an outrageous headline: “Five-mile queue to view Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin will ‘see horrible stories of suffering” (paywalled link). Good Lord! People might faint, they might be too cold, they might have to stand – for 30 hours! Better not come at all, especially if you’re ‘elderly’ because there’ll be a shroted queue for the disbaled – but being elderly doesn’t count.

I can’t help but think that such articles are aimed at keeping people from paying their respect, thus reducing the numbers, thus allowing politicians and our dear opinion piece writers to tell us that actually, “we” aren’t really interested and can do without a monarch, especially one who has arranged his tax debts like any other rich person. 

There’s one other ‘outrage’ which gladdened my heart. Under the heading ‘life goes on’, there’s an article in The Times, an answer to the opinion piece yesterday on the sacking of the Treasury chief mandarin. Clearly, there’s a palace revolt going on in Westminster, with top mandarins blaming the still current top of the top mandarin, the cabinet secretary in No 10, Simon Case:

“Liz Truss personally pushed for the sacking of the Treasury’s top civil servant, prompting senior colleagues to accuse Simon Case, the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, of permitting an “outrage”. […] Other permanent secretaries now fear for their future and blame Case for allowing Scholar to be fired. Whitehall sources believe Scholar was seen as an easy target in Truss’s campaign to show a break with the Treasury orthodoxy, which she criticised repeatedly during the Conservative leadership election.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear! ‘Tis an outrage, so it is! Clearly, these top mandarins expected Mr Case to insist that Truss not sack yon Treasury chief. Clearly, this expectation shows that, as far as the top mandarins re concerned, even PM has to do as she’s told. Clearly, this is how Whitehall works and has been working all the time, as I’ve been pointing out again and again.

Here are more wailings, showing me that all those ‘senior sources’ The Times always loves to quote anonymously must be those permanent Whitehall mandarins now howling their outrage:

“Other permanent secretaries are said to have described the sacking as “unbelievable”. A source said: “They’ve axed the person who is in the strongest position to give them any challenge.” (link, paywalled)

Again – the working premise of the mandarins is to ‘challenge’ the PM and ministers but not to try and implement their policies for which they were elected. It looks to me as if all those top mandarins are focussing on Simon Case who ought to have told Truss not to do it, to keep Whitehall in the comfortable way they’ve always worked.

Mr Case should’ve ‘stood up for the values of the civil service’, a former permanent secretary at the HO bleats. Others told The Times that: “Permanent secretaries are upset about what’s happened, thinking it could happen to any of them.”, with a nifty little threat added: “If they think there’s a ‘Treasury ideology’ and the way to change that is to change the permanent secretary, that won’t work.” (link, paywalled).

They don’t even notice that this threat demonstrates that Whitehall is indeed ideology-riddled, that they regard themselves as being above such mundane things like being sacked. These wails and threats show clearly that Whitehall, that the top mandarins, do indeed regard themselves as the true rulers of this country:

“Lord Wilson of Dinton, a former cabinet secretary, […] warned that the sacking would be destabilising for the government. “It looks like an attempt to shift on to institutions the blame for the failure of ministers’ own past policies,” he writes in a letter to The Times.” (link, paywalled)

Oh yes? So the mandarins are now the poor, oppressed serfs trying their utmost to implement ministers’ ill-advised policies? Like the negotiations with the EU, after Brexit,, perhaps? Here’s the final statement, by the ‘boss’ of the civil serpents’ trade union:

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA civil service union, said: “They have got rid of someone who was effectively Britain’s most powerful civil servant in a way that’s overtly political. “The point of having a mandarin class is that you have expertise and people who have been in difficult situations before, and they have got rid of that without any good reason other than political signalling.” (link, paywalled)

Aha! So we do have a ‘mandarin class’! With ‘expertise’ even – like the one on show a year ago when Kabul fell and only one lowly civil servant in the FO was left to deal with that proper crisis. 

I am glad the mandarin-class cat is out of the bag, thanks to the moans from that ‘class’. Finally the veil of ‘mandarin expertise’ and ‘non-political’ advice has been lifted – and all out of their own mouths! ‘Tis an outrage I personally celebrate.



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