Have you all read . @michaelgove's Ditchley Lecture?

"The Privilege of Public Service" runs to 139 paragraphs over 69 (double-spaced) pages.

The main topic is civil service *reform* —but it covers so much more & raises interesting QUESTIONS...

/1.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/896041/Ditchley_lecture.pdf

MG quotes Antonio Gramsci,"The crisis consists precisely of the fact that the inherited is dying—and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear."

In our case the inherited was assassinated, the loss an uncompensated diminishment...

/2.

Brexiters have put NOTHING forward to compensate for stripping 66m of us Brits of our #FreedomOfMovement — a FREEDOM millions in service industries rely on it to do our jobs. Without it, we're less competitive on our own Continent.

Govt isn't even being honest abt it...

/3.

Back to the lecture: paras 2-11 are a whirlwind tour thru upheaval in the political landscape, mostly abroad.

It feels dishonest NOT to mention the Tory party, no longer either conservative, or particularly unionist, which has undergone more radical change than most...

/4.

One-Nation Toryism is dead, its most prominent MPs (+ the wealth of their political experience) purged from The Party. Cameron wanted to deal with UKIP. Under Johnson the Tories have become it, thx to Arron Banks's entryism campaign & an ideological lurch to the far right.

/5.

MG rightly says people feel failed by the political system (para 12), but misses the point as to why we feel failed.

It's the non-stop lying, industrial scale & weaponised since 2016; the immature public schoolboy antics in parliament (mercifully lessened by C19), and...

/6.

corruption.

Yes, that's what the Jenrick *cash for favours* scandal is, as well as the emerging scandal of alleged misuse of public funds under emergency COVID19 procurement procedures to make massive bungs via taxpayer-funded contracts to Tory donors + VoteLeave veterans.

/7.

Without irony , MG address the evil of inequality in para 14 —never mind that under the Tories inequality has grown exponentially.

2010-18: UK total household wealth rose from £10.6t to £14.6t. 47.3% of the increase went to the wealthiest 10%, only 0.0018% to the poorest.

/8.

To clarify, although we were in the EU at the time, none of that disparity in wealth distribution was down to the EU.

The EU controlled far less than the Govt & its tame tabloids would have you believe.

This inequality was a fundamental failure of our Govt & poor policies.

/9.

In paras 13-15 MG signals some of the problems of globalisation, but seems to forget that but for 11mths (Jul2016-Jun2017) he's been in Govt, a Cabinet Minister, so in a position to do something about them.

What did HE personally do the address the problems?

/10.

No one political or economic philosophy is fair to everyone, which is why you need a Govt with imaginative policies to alleviate the pinch points; instead MG spearheaded one of the most dishonest and divisive political campaigns in British history.

/11.

Chronic underfunding of public services as Tories used austerity as their weapon of choice to implement their *small government* ideology, using the global financial crisis of 2008 as cover, became, "Look over there! Too many migrants..."

/12.

In para16 MG rehashes May's *citizens of nowhere* jibe, ignoring it's not just the elite who benefit from #FreedomOfMovement, but also working class (like me) for whom it's a means of social mobility.

Isn't that the very thing you Cons always berate us feckless poor to do?

/13.

Para 18: "This sense that those who had been in power had presided over a growing gulf in both wealth and attitudes, and were no longer working in solidarity with other citizens..."

*waves*

Hello, Michael. You are the elite, working for the elite, and nothing has changed.

/14.

2 paras on conflicts, Afghanistan, Iran, etc., then para 21:"The migrant crisis on Europe’s southern shores raised profound issues abt just how humane & civilised our elites were."

*A-hem* UK's response was #HostileEnvironment & Go-home vans. Hell, we even deport our own.

/15.

Para 22 is on failures before/after 2008 FinCrisis.

For me, biggest failure = No banks/Bankers held accountable. Despite banks having the most sophisticated audit trails on the planet,nobody was prosecuted. Within a couple of years bankers bonuses were as inflated as ever.

/16.

Yet 3yrs later, after the 2011 London riots (not nearly as destructive as FinCrisis 2008, but more visible), dozens of people were arrested & processed thru the courts in record time. People were given a criminal record for stealing a bottle of water. Mostly black people.

/17.

There was that familiar sense of *one rule for the elites, another for you plebs*.

Remember that, because it's going to come up again...

/18.

In para 23 MG claims "people chose to opt for identity politics", completely forgetting his pal Dominic Cummings had a massive hand in that, grooming over 7m carefully selected voters Cambridge Analytica & AIQ thought could be gaslit into voting against their interests.

/19.

In paras 24 & 25 MG talks about the C19 pandemic highlighting inequalities, but it's para 26 that is truly gob-smacking.

"As we seek to restore our fractured economies and heal our divided societies..."

WHAT?!! We were #InThisTogether, building amazing solidarity, until —

/20.

Dominic Cummings took a 260 mile road-trip to his 2nd home (yes, 2nd home, check the deeds) and further took the p*ss out of every man, woman & child in the UK who made enormous sacrifices to stick to his rules with an *eye-test* drive to Barnard Castle on his wife's B-day.

/21.

Millions of us are still angry. What made DC's non-apology worse was a Cabinet-level op mounted to lie to us that he hadn't broken the rules (which he had, & no shaggy dog story excused it).

You NEVER come back from sh*tting all over people's trust like that. #SackCummings

/22.

Also, you don't bring a country together by starting a culture war on statues in the middle of a pandemic.

#JustSaying

/23.

Smart move to change it up to discuss technology: its challenges and potential benefits in paras 27 - 31.

"They also require us to think carefully about the moral & political questions they can raise."

They certainly do, and Cummings's track record on that is appalling.

/24.

In para 31 MG talks about those who could be left behind as technology spurs new ways of doing things.

His sensitivity on this point makes his silence on the impact of stripping us Brits of our #FreedomOfMovement rights all the more salient.

What are you doing about it?

/25.

Ah! Equitable access to health care. On that we can agree. So why do the Govt's deeds STILL not match their words on waiving the excess #NHS charge for foreign healthcare-workers working for the NHS?!!

Will you honour that promise? When?

/26.

The next few paras concern the natural world, but curiously without drawing the logical conclusion that the Environment and the challenges of climate change need to be front & centre of every single policy from here on in.

Weak, weak, weak from a supposed green convert.

/27.

An unexpected paean to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), 32nd US president, 1933-45.

PM is also talking abt him, so it must be a Cummings ploy to sugar the crash-out Brexit pill.

Para 39: "He succeeded on such a scale, of course, because he was a remarkable leader." Hmm.

/28.

In the next few paras, MG continues with his interpretation of FDR.

"And the last shall be first, and the first shall be last." Except, not really. This Govt will trash the middle classes to level them down to the working classes, et voilà - the richest can get richer.

/29.

Far be it from this Govt to make all those millionaire Brexit backers bring their off-shore fortunes on-shore, or criticise them for rushing to get EU passports now that Govt is ending the opportunity to live, study, work or retire in 31 countries for the hoi-polloi.

/30.

"What is needed is both ambition in scope and then honesty in assessment," says MG in para43.

Can anybody name an occasion when there has EVER been an honest assessment of Brexit?

Mention the word *risk* and you're accused of thwarting Brexit, or worse, being unpatriotic.

/31.

Not only has there never been a grown-up discussion about Brexit risks & how to mitigate them, but nobody has ever been able to name a single true benefit.

As each faux benefit was debunked, it came down to *it's what people voted for*—in 2016, before the lies were exposed

/32.

Slight pause there as I had a coughing fit over MG's assertion in para 44 that we must have "the humility to know when to change course."

Even Brexiters say they're cool with #ExtendTransition. But will our pig-headed Govt do it? No. They rule by date-fetish, not outcomes.

/33.

Never has there been a UK Govt with so little regard for the welfare of its exhausted people.

The Brexit process has already made many of us poorer, & C19 poorer still.

Companies are reeling from the wasted investment in no-deal preps 2x in 2019, and now the C19 hit.

/34.

As for customs, they're nowhere near ready. Not surprising: to write the specs for an IT system, you have to know what the details of any deal will be, or even if there's to be a deal. Then it takes 12-36mths to develop, test & roll-out the system.

https://twitter.com/vivamjm/status/1269569793398620160

/35.

In para 45 MG talks of empowered reformers. This may foreshadow line Govt will take on criticism of a VoteLeave whizzkid blowing thru £12m in 2mths when we could've had Germany's (working) TT app FREE, or £108m given to a co. w/ £19k of assets & no track record to make #PPE

/36.

FDR’s success has much to teach us, MG claims in para 45.

What a shame this Tory Govt is bastardising FDRs lessons to such an extent that their actions are more akin to Germany in the 1930s than USA at that time.

/37.

Para 51: "It is part of my job in the Cabinet Office to help drive change. To demonstrate the good that Govt can do ... to strive every day to use the money and the powers, the people have vested in us to improve their lives."

#EpicFail so far, MG. And it's OUR money.

/38.

The next few paras talk abt getting closer to the people by physically re-locating departments.

Wide of the mark again, MG. If the power is still all in your little gang of 4's hands, then you'd still feel remote & out-of-touch, even if you were to meet in my living room.

/39.

One thing you mention in para 55 that would be very welcome is cutting down the influence of London-based think-tanks.

You can begin by cutting out the coincidentally named *55 Tufton Street* cluster of dubiously funded, ultra right-wing think tanks.

/40.

How ironic to hear MG lament *groupthink* when Brexit is such an all-consuming cult & no divergence of thought on it will be tolerated. It's the new *Test Act* for our time.

People's careers are being ruined/prematurely ended by your preference for ideology over ability.

/41.

Seriously? What is this? Did you have a relapse and snort a white-line? THAT's how mad this paragraph sounds.

I don't know who your editor / peer review team is, but they did you no favours letting you get away with this horrific paragraph.

/42.

In para 70 we're back to FDR's *Forgotten Man* and MG's 2016 voter.

This is why Brexit is a failure and will damage us: MG is stuck in 2016 and is still in denial about truth & reality.

Only 34.9% of the population still wants Brexit.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/25/uk/uk-supports-eu-four-years-after-brexit-intl-gbr/index.html

/43.

Paras 71-2 abt "people who have given so much in the recent crisis & represent the best in every community" are very welcome, but have you told Priti Patel?

We've learnt so much from the C19 crisis, inclu. that Patel's clumsy definition of *low-skilled* is plain wrong.

/44.

Para 75: we need to heal & unite our country - yes, but you don't do that by treating anyone who didn't vote for your Brexit cult as a 2nd class citizen, useful only for scapegoating when things go wrong, or by inflicting no-deal on everyone in the midst of a pandemic.

/45.

Sorry about that. Went for some strawberries & cream stayed for Endeavour...

Moving right along to *Big Data*, paras 86-8.

Lots a scary stuff. Govt needs to open up data to others. Huge potential in #NHS data. Etc.

Problem: only fools trust Cummings w/ their data.

/46.

Paras 89-108 detail MG's gripes abt *strategic HR management* of the Civil Service: skills mis-match; loss of expertise on staff rotation; lack of diversity of thought; focus on *soft skills* training...etc.

None of this provides justification for politicizaton of the CS.

/47.

From para 109 on MG turns to procurement.

He churlishly lambasts those who criticize Govt failures; seems to think he should get a free pass for wasting £108m of taxpayers' money on ferryless ferry co.s, because Govt was trying something new.

/48.

MG is rude about the National Audit Office, *self-righteous* select committee chairs, the *hindsight rancour* of journalists and the *disappointed froideur* of both civil service & ministers.

BUT THEY'RE DOING THEIR JOBS, MICHAEL - holding you to account for losing OUR £!

/49.

There's an easy way to deal with this: apply portfolio management techniques. Put limits on % of any given budget to be spent on high-risk projects.

This govt consists of 4 blokes who are willing to stake the house on bets nobody should accept, to hell with the rest of us.

/50.

"Innovation comes when people take reasonable risks – and responsibility," says MG in para 111.

There's the rub. Nobody wld think the Ferryless Ferry co., one of Dom's VL pals developing the TT app or a co. w/£19k assets getting a £108m order are *reasonable risks*.

/51.

More mud-slinging at the National Audit Office & parliamentary select committees (esp. PAC) by MG in para 118.

I agree there's a problem with SelectComms: they're toothless. We need to give them greater legal powers + the possibility to impose sanctions for contempt.

/52.

That someone who is in contempt of parliament can now be an unelected bureaucrat at the heart of our government with more power than everyone, inclu. the Queen, and de facto running the country is an abomination.

This is an illegitimate, anti-democratic, rogue government.

/53.