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The now-enacted will of (some of) the people


blandy

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I'm not sure how to interpret the letter, it could be him using his position to help absolve staff in his department of blame.

Unprecedented times, that's for sure. This government were always going to tear the Union and our international reputation to shreds. They're well on their way.

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28 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I'm not sure how to interpret the letter, it could be him using his position to help absolve staff in his department of blame.

That's basically it - it's similar to ministerial direction. So if a minister wants to do something that directly contradicts civil service advice then they are asked to put in writing to "direct" the civil servant to do it. Meaning it's on the record that it was the politician wot done it and the staff can't be blamed when it goes wrong.

This is basically Jonathan Jones doing that for the whole civil service. Or the legal department anyway.

I'm sure that @Mandy Lifeboats will be able to correct my layman's interpretation if I have that wrong...

 

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12 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

That's basically it - it's similar to ministerial direction. So if a minister wants to do something that directly contradicts civil service advice then they are asked to put in writing to "direct" the civil servant to do it. Meaning it's on the record that it was the politician wot done it and the staff can't be blamed when it goes wrong.

This is basically Jonathan Jones doing that for the whole civil service. Or the legal department anyway.

I'm sure that @Mandy Lifeboats will be able to correct my layman's interpretation if I have that wrong...

 

I sort of get the only following orders line, but it being publically known 2 days earlier that you resigned, knowing this position to be utter bollocks doesn't have any bearing on that?

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54 minutes ago, bickster said:

He's resigned but is sending letters out in his name that he knows to be an incorrect position (legally speaking) so much so it's what he actually resigned over.

I'm not sure that the statement he's sending out is an incorrect position or that he's done this with a gun to his head.

The DAG take is this (it's the last tweet in a thread going through the statement):

 

Edited by snowychap
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3 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I am starting to wonder how far they can push things before a general strike is on the cards.

I think you're overestimating how much cut-through this sort of thing has outside of niche corners of the Internet.

I reckon for every ten random people asked about this subject, one will be furious, one will be elated, one will be neither of those but will find it interesting, three won't really care and four won't care to such an extent that they don't even know that it's happening. And if they did they wouldn't care.

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11 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I am starting to wonder how far they can push things before a general strike is on the cards.

 

3 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

I think you're overestimating how much cut-through this sort of thing has outside of niche corners of the Internet.

I reckon for every ten random people asked about this subject, one will be furious, one will be elated, one will be neither of those but will find it interesting, three won't really care and four won't care to such an extent that they don't even know that it's happening. And if they did they wouldn't care.

 

Half price burgers in October should damp down any thoughts of revolution.

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The Tories are very comfortably playing a hand that has won before. Last year, when the Supreme Court overturned the proroguing of Parliament, the Tories - with the ever-willing help of their friends throughout the media - effortlessly portrayed it as unelected, unaccountable establishment fuddy-duddies thwarting the people's will to leave the EU.

Now, the inevitable rejection of this bill in the Lords will fill that exact template again. The Lords will be the unelected fuddy-duddies, not Lady Hale, and this bill will be the barely-understood step to Brexit rather than proroguing Parliament, but the fundamental dynamic is the same, and of the fairly small proportion of the population even noticing that something is happening, the majority will conclude that dastardly remainers are trying to sabotage the process again. There is no winning on this issue.

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1 hour ago, ml1dch said:

I think you're overestimating how much cut-through this sort of thing has outside of niche corners of the Internet.

I reckon for every ten random people asked about this subject, one will be furious, one will be elated, one will be neither of those but will find it interesting, three won't really care and four won't care to such an extent that they don't even know that it's happening. And if they did they wouldn't care.

It's not the random people who would be striking though, it's civil servants and most of them will be fully aware. 

Unfortunately it would just give the government more popular opinion from the ill informed to ban legal strikes. 

Edited by Sam-AVFC
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11 hours ago, ml1dch said:

That's basically it - it's similar to ministerial direction. So if a minister wants to do something that directly contradicts civil service advice then they are asked to put in writing to "direct" the civil servant to do it. Meaning it's on the record that it was the politician wot done it and the staff can't be blamed when it goes wrong.

This is basically Jonathan Jones doing that for the whole civil service. Or the legal department anyway.

I'm sure that @Mandy Lifeboats will be able to correct my layman's interpretation if I have that wrong...

 

100% correct.  I am a civil servant myself.  On numerous occasions I have used  the “instruct me in writing” tactic.  Most of the time it prompts the person to have a second look at their instruction and seek advice from others.  But ultimately it gives me protection if things go wrong. 
 

But....
 

Civil Servants should never break the law even if instructed to do so.  If you think you might there’s a procedure where you can log the matter.  You will then receive a legal opinion from the department’s legal team.  This effectively becomes the legal stance of the entire department and the Secretary of State (SOS) who can over-rule his own legal team if he wants to. 
 

I’ve issued the formal process once in 33 years. 
 

Being directed in writing by your department and therefore the SOS himself gives you personal legal protection that is water tight 99.9999999% of the time. 

 

 

Edited by Mandy Lifeboats
Speeling mishsteaks
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