Post by northwestman on Mar 6, 2023 21:27:35 GMT 1
The Lockdown Files show that, time and time again, the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, ended up as political as the politicians – in some cases, even more so. Some of the most outrageous comments on the files are his.
Like others, he started off quite moderate. But before too long he was revelling in the power to lock people up (saying he wished he could see “some of the faces of people coming out of first class and into a Premier Inn shoe box”) and being just as gung-ho as the ministers he worked with. The civil servant became indistinguishable from the politicians.
Perhaps the most revealing moment came in June 2020, when Alok Sharma, the mild-mannered business secretary, argued for certain rules to be advisory rather than compulsory. At this stage, Covid circulation had plummeted – deaths had fallen by 93 per cent from the peak.
A permanent secretary with oversight over the whole UK government might have appreciated the call for restraint and the importance of not needlessly burdening the economy, or at the very least weighed up the trade-offs that different ministers were making.
But Case seemed just as appalled as Hancock at this resistance to lockdown laws. “Question I can’t understand is why Alok is against controlling the virus,” Hancock complains.
Case offers an explanation: Sharma, he says, is motivated by “pure Conservative ideology”. He does not seem to use the phrase as a compliment. If this is his view about the notion of regulatory restraint, it cannot make his job – enacting the policy of a Conservative government – any easier.
Case says that people need to be persuaded to isolate – but to get that message across “relies on people hearing about isolation from trusted local figures, not nationally distrusted figures like the PM”. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his boss.
The Lockdown Files show that Britain ended up with a standard of decision-making far below what could or should have been. And for that, Case deserves his full share of the blame.
Daily Telegraph.
Like others, he started off quite moderate. But before too long he was revelling in the power to lock people up (saying he wished he could see “some of the faces of people coming out of first class and into a Premier Inn shoe box”) and being just as gung-ho as the ministers he worked with. The civil servant became indistinguishable from the politicians.
Perhaps the most revealing moment came in June 2020, when Alok Sharma, the mild-mannered business secretary, argued for certain rules to be advisory rather than compulsory. At this stage, Covid circulation had plummeted – deaths had fallen by 93 per cent from the peak.
A permanent secretary with oversight over the whole UK government might have appreciated the call for restraint and the importance of not needlessly burdening the economy, or at the very least weighed up the trade-offs that different ministers were making.
But Case seemed just as appalled as Hancock at this resistance to lockdown laws. “Question I can’t understand is why Alok is against controlling the virus,” Hancock complains.
Case offers an explanation: Sharma, he says, is motivated by “pure Conservative ideology”. He does not seem to use the phrase as a compliment. If this is his view about the notion of regulatory restraint, it cannot make his job – enacting the policy of a Conservative government – any easier.
Case says that people need to be persuaded to isolate – but to get that message across “relies on people hearing about isolation from trusted local figures, not nationally distrusted figures like the PM”. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his boss.
The Lockdown Files show that Britain ended up with a standard of decision-making far below what could or should have been. And for that, Case deserves his full share of the blame.
Daily Telegraph.
