The belief that changing staff at the top makes a difference remains strong in Downing Street with the announcement that Simon Case is to replace Mark Sedwill as Cabinet Secretary. I don't know Mr Case and he seems likeable enough although some are questioning his experience in such a senior role but I think that fails to see the point. He hasn't been appointed for his experience or ability. It is his willingness to obey Dominic Cumming that really matters. This is the only qualification needed to serve at the top of Johnson's government, in or out of the cabinet, as we know.
It is akin to changing the captain after striking the iceberg. And for someone less experienced too.
Whether Case realises it or not he is now part of the human shield around Johnson, Gove and Cummings. When things go wrong - as they will - he will be next in line for dismissal, another casualty of Brexit. The problem is trying to deliver the impossible illusion, to give a mirage the appearance of solidity. I am afraid it is bound to fail.
He is another Cambridge Humanities graduate who went on to gain a PhD before joining the civil service as a policy adviser at the MoD in 2006. His history is I imagine first class but his understanding of industry and commerce is zero so will not add to the sum total of what Downinng Street knows about the engine of the British economy - it will still be zero.
And on the topic of knowing nothing I caught this tweet yesterday:
Just caught a bit of Countryfile...conversation with a Pig Farmer...Journalist "Brexit ..?"Farmer "Well...it is happening ..but as long as we keep our frictionless trade we'll be happy"Jounalist & farmer happily bouyant together !!People haven't got a bloody clue have they?— Michael M. 🇨ðŸ‡ðŸ‡³ðŸ‡´ðŸ‡®ðŸ‡¸ðŸ‡±ðŸ‡®ðŸ‡¬ðŸ‡§ (@vivamjm) August 30, 2020
The pig farmer - four months from the end of the transition period mind you - still does not realise that frictionless trade is finished and has been ever since Johnson became Tory leader. More importantly, the BBC employee didn't put him right because either he didn't know or couldn't be bothered.
I am afraid he is in for a big shock. It illustrates what a huge task the government has to educate these people about what will happen at the end of the year. And to do it without sparking a lot of discontent.
Isn't this the problem? People voted to leave the EU and believed those who claimed that any difficulties were scaremongering. After Leave won, they went back to their lives and thought it was something that will happen and we'll hardly notice the difference. And if we did notice, it would all be for the better, the sunlit uplands.
Four years on and many people are like the pig farmer. They do not understand what Brexit means.
This video of Michael Gove from early 2016 shows him telling an audience that the idea we would be out of the single market is "for the birds" and they believed him. And now we are definitely out of the single market, not by accident, but by design. It is the government's central policy.
Gove was still talking about German car makers, French wine producers and Italian cheesemakers forcing the EU to give us a good deal. He didn't understand anything then and he doesn't understand anything now.
But he very soon will.
I am afraid he is in for a big shock. It illustrates what a huge task the government has to educate these people about what will happen at the end of the year. And to do it without sparking a lot of discontent.
Isn't this the problem? People voted to leave the EU and believed those who claimed that any difficulties were scaremongering. After Leave won, they went back to their lives and thought it was something that will happen and we'll hardly notice the difference. And if we did notice, it would all be for the better, the sunlit uplands.
Four years on and many people are like the pig farmer. They do not understand what Brexit means.
This video of Michael Gove from early 2016 shows him telling an audience that the idea we would be out of the single market is "for the birds" and they believed him. And now we are definitely out of the single market, not by accident, but by design. It is the government's central policy.
Gove was still talking about German car makers, French wine producers and Italian cheesemakers forcing the EU to give us a good deal. He didn't understand anything then and he doesn't understand anything now.
But he very soon will.
