
How to advise Lord North, or Heath, or Thatcher, or Johnson
A new volume of essays puts special advisers in historical context, and suggests the Cabinet has been marginalised by a succession of over-mighty PMs.
A new volume of essays puts special advisers in historical context, and suggests the Cabinet has been marginalised by a succession of over-mighty PMs.
The recent bias in Downing Street against putting the Work and Pensions Secretary up for press conferences and big media shows is inexplicable.
“You have to look at who’s doing the talking up,” says the Foreign Secretary, when asked about rumours regarding a possible Cabinet reshuffle.
He doesn’t know who leaked an announcement of a second national lockdown, he told Andrew Marr.
With her odd mixture of indiscretion and obedience, her contempt for liberal groupthink and love of freedom, she in many ways a useful ally.
Publishing this information may lead to a more realistic understanding from the public of the real costs of the current strategy.
We are bringing our ever-popular series of interviews and debates to your screen – and they’ll be open to everyone, including non-Party members, for free.
The real one is widely and correctly dismissed as weak. So we’ve had a go at assembling a stronger team. Here is the result.
Plus: incompetence, resignations, non-resignations, reputations, my holiday, Any Questions and Finkelstein’s book.
They don’t talk about politics in daily life; don’t write to local or national newspapers; most importantly, they’re not politically active online.
Johnson will almost certainly decide to tough it out. But he will have a big problem if school returns prove tricky.
Plus: There is speculation of a Cabinet reshuffle soon, but I hear otherwise…
Meanwhile the Prime Minister continues to slide down the rankings, falling into the 40s for the first time since taking office.
The NHS employs 1.75 million people and is too monolithic. The number of civil servants has risen to 460,000. This is territory which the Chancellor needs to examine in detail.
By the way, it is a travesty that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Leader of the House aren’t full members.