Bozo And Polecat Reward Failure

The rumours had been circulating for some time, and yesterday came the confirmation: Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary and the UK’s most senior Civil Servant, would be leaving his post in September. He had been the victim of a series of hostile briefings from those unnamed “Downing Street sources”, for which read chief polecat Dominic Cummings and his pals. The Guardian made one telling observation.

“Cummings is reported to have warned just last week that a ‘hard rain’ would soon fall on the civil service”. Yeah, don’t diss the Polecat, cos he’s dead ‘ard! But the questions were already being asked, as Paul Waugh of the HuffPost noted. “Real unease among some in civil service about this today … [Dave Penman of the FDA]: ‘No.10 - or those around it - has sought to undermine Sir Mark and the leadership of the civil service, with a series of anonymous briefings against him over many months’”. There was more.

“‘How would any potential candidate for Cabinet Secretary judge their prospective employers, given how the current cadre of leaders has been treated by them?’ A very good question indeed … One source points out just a few years ago Frost was CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association. It appears he has little experience of intelligence or security”.

David Frost? The Brexit negotiator? Yes, Frost has, as part of the overhaul which Cummings is directing in the name of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, been made National Security Advisor. Bozo told “I am delighted to appoint David Frost as my next National Security Adviser. He is an experienced diplomat, policy thinker, and proven negotiator, with a strong belief in building Britain’s place in the world”.

Chris Mason of the BBC noted that this was a political appointment; Frost will not be a Civil Servant, and therefore not bound by Civil Service restraints. This did not impress Labour MP Chris Bryant, who knows a little about the workings of Government.

“So the new National Security Adviser is a minister? Is he advising himself? What’s the point of the Foreign and Defence Secretaries? This is an appalling constitutional confusion. A political appointee as national security advisor who is a member of the legislature. It completely confuses every line of accountability”.

Worse, in promoting someone perceived by the Polecat and his pals as being sufficiently malleable, Bozo has all too obviously rewarded failure. Frost has led negotiations with the EU side on a future trade deal, and his efforts have got precisely nowhere - other than to cause exasperation on the EU side by trying to renege on past commitments.

Frost is a significant part of the loss of trust in the UK, and why countries like Japan have presented a trade deal, telling the Brits that they have six seeks to sign on the dotted line, or face trade disruption after the end of the year. He apparently continues as chief negotiator with the EU. So expect them to lose patience too.

Polecat Dom won’t be getting a white cat on his lap any time soon if all he can muster is “This organisation not only tolerates failure, Mr Bond, it promotes it”.

Worse, he’ll soon run out of people to blame. Maybe he’ll end up sacking himself.

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