https://www.reddit.com/r/brexit/comment ... plan_stop/
From TheTimes.co.uk last week:
I can reveal Whitehall’s secret Brexit plan: Stop it Dead
The four core values of the civil service are honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity. Before joining the organisation I had believed, naively, that these values would be upheld unconditionally. I very quickly came to learn that, in relation to Brexit, nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, I must remain anonymous for fear of the backlash I would receive at my place of work. However, I can reveal that I am a senior policy professional within the civil service and work closely with numerous governmental departments.
There are a number of extremely dangerous myths regarding civil servants that I must dispel because of the impact they are having on the Brexit process.
Myth 1: the civil service is independent. The civil service was founded on the pillars of political neutrality. Civil servants are meant to ensure that their own political persuasions do not affect their work. Crucially, they should accept those from all political leanings and points of view.
It has become clear to me that the vast majority of civil servants support “remain”. From my own observations I would estimate this number to be well over 90%. This is worrying in itself and far from representative of the 52% of the population who voted for Brexit.
Most horrifying, however, is the sheer disdain and utter contempt that my colleagues display towards people who voted to leave. I have lost count of the number of insulting and derogatory terms that are used in my own department and elsewhere to refer to the 17.4m people who voted for Brexit: “racist”, “stupid”, “uneducated”. Anti-Brexit jokes and snide remarks are dropped casually into everyday office conversations.
I live in fear that my colleagues will discover through a slip of my tongue that I am a Brexiteer. Were this to happen, I genuinely believe that most would refuse to talk to me again and that I might even lose my job.
This entire culture creates a thickening cloud of negativity towards Brexit that shades all areas of the civil service. I have witnessed first-hand civil servants doing everything within their power, subtly and under the surface, to frustrate Brexit and talk it down at every opportunity. This can only seriously undermine our efforts to be in the strongest position possible on leaving the EU.
Myth 2: civil servants are experts in their field. One would like to think the individuals making decisions that affect our entire nation would have some level of skill or experience. If only that were true. For example, I know of one standalone “expert” policy team leading our preparations for Brexit. You can imagine my disbelief when I discovered none of its members had worked on anything remotely related to the EU before.
In fact I have discovered over time that the vast majority of “experts” within the civil service have no expertise whatsoever. In many cases the “portfolio” that you take on when you join the service is dictated by the one held by your predecessor. As a result you have new civil servants inheriting politically sensitive and highly important work without the faintest clue about what they are dealing with.
Civil servants who are seriously underperforming will usually have a new job title and position created for them somewhere else in the organisation instead of being sacked or performance-managed — they become someone else’s problem then. Given the influence that civil servants are exerting over the Brexit process, this is truly concerning.
Myth 3: the civil service does not engage in scaremongering. I had hoped that civil servants, even in times of crisis, would be able to remain calm and level-headed in pursuit of ensuring the best outcomes for our country. And yet it is not uncommon for me to receive emails from colleagues promoting Brexit scare stories that are nothing more than lies and speculation.
Recently, things have become so panicked that various “Brexit contingency” plans have been set up throughout the organisation. This is to prepare for the “national public transport breakdown”, “surge in criminality” and “widespread public unrest” that is going to follow March 29.
These plans also involve collecting the personal details of certain civil servants to put in place a 24-hour on-call rota for the “emergency” that is looming. This scaremongering, created and whipped up by civil servants, is having a marked impact on the confidence and wellbeing of ordinary citizens. For example, one acquaintance of mine is so terrified by the speculative threats put out by the civil service that they have already started to stockpile large quantities of their medication. This needs to stop.
Myth 4: ministers are in charge. When I was outside the civil service looking in, I always believed that civil servants were there simply to advise their ministers, who, as elected representatives of the people, would make the ultimate decision. However, I have come to realise that ministers are often mere puppets with civil servants pulling ferociously at their strings. The level of bureaucracy is unimaginable. In my experience parliamentary briefings go through — at a minimum — five stages of internal clearance, with crucial information being amended or deleted at every stage on the whim of that individual civil servant.
The power and competence of our ministers is, I’m afraid, a facade. They are nothing more than a megaphone for the views of biased civil servants who lurk behind them in the shadows.
I am a long-standing believer in and supporter of the “leave” campaign. Not so long ago we celebrated the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The UK has been built on the pillars of democracy and we have the greatest legal system in the world. It is absolutely shameful that while we remain in the EU our parliament is no longer sovereign, our Supreme Court is no longer supreme and our nation is no longer self-governing.
To go against the will of the people expressed in the 2016 referendum would be the ultimate act of betrayal.
We are good enough and strong enough to stand on our own two feet. I am, therefore, calling firmly on the UK government to allow us to take back control by leaving the EU on World Trade Organisation terms. Anything other than this — be it an extension of article 50, a second referendum or Theresa May’s pitiful deal — and we will have been betrayed. And if the people are betrayed, I may have no choice but to resign from the civil service altogether.
Honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity: we will soon discover, once and for all, whether our politicians embody these values.
"The swamp", the "deep state"...
