After the general election last July, The Guardian ran a column written by an anonymous Whitehall employee. Its headline was: “After years of being gaslit by government, we civil servants can breathe again under Labour”. And, underneath, its author revealed that many of his or her colleagues were overjoyed about the Tories’ defeat.
One unnamed civil servant was quoted as saying: “I’ve never been so glad to see the back of a government.” Another gurgled: “I feel professionally revitalised knowing that the adults are in charge.”
Less than a year on, however, it seems that the mood in Whitehall isn’t quite so euphoric. Some mandarins are finding that “the adults” aren’t to their taste, either. Or so I infer from the following story about the Foreign Office.
Last month, more than 300 civil servants signed a letter to David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary. It questioned the continued sale of arms to Israel, accused the Government of contributing to “the erosion of global norms”, and complained about what its signatories saw as a “stark… disregard for international law”.
Now they’ve received a reply. But it probably isn’t the one they were hoping for. Because Sir Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, has written them a letter of his own – calmly explaining that, if they don’t like the Government’s policy on this or any other issue, they know where the door is. “If your disagreement with any aspect of Government policy or action is profound,” he writes, “your ultimate recourse is to resign from the civil service”.
After the general election last July, The Guardian ran a column written by an anonymous Whitehall employee. Its headline was: “After years of being gaslit by government, we civil servants can breathe again under Labour”. And, underneath, its author revealed that many of his or her colleagues were overjoyed about the Tories’ defeat.
One unnamed civil servant was quoted as saying: “I’ve never been so glad to see the back of a government.” Another gurgled: “I feel professionally revitalised knowing that the adults are in charge.”
Less than a year on, however, it seems that the mood in Whitehall isn’t quite so euphoric. Some mandarins are finding that “the adults” aren’t to their taste, either. Or so I infer from the following story about the Foreign Office.
Last month, more than 300 civil servants signed a letter to David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary. It questioned the continued sale of arms to Israel, accused the Government of contributing to “the erosion of global norms”, and complained about what its signatories saw as a “stark… disregard for international law”.
Now they’ve received a reply. But it probably isn’t the one they were hoping for. Because Sir Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, has written them a letter of his own – calmly explaining that, if they don’t like the Government’s policy on this or any other issue, they know where the door is. “If your disagreement with any aspect of Government policy or action is profound,” he writes, “your ultimate recourse is to resign from the civil service”.