Sue Gray accused of hoarding power ( The Times today on her sacking)

I must have misheard this. I thought she was hoarding soap POWDER.

I assumed it was some over-purchase of cleaning stuff by the Government during the Covid episode and she was sneaked it into her handbag each day.

But still, not whiter than white maybe?

Link to the original article

https://order-order.com/2024/10/10/sue-gray-causes-chaos-in-downing-street-in-battle-for-massive-severance-payout-and-salary/

Interesting development

Sue Gray 'digging in heels for major severance package' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13946457/Sue-Gray-severance-package-ousted-Downing-Street-power-struggle.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton

That's how it's supposed to work but it hasn't for a long time

Interesting to hear what TRIP had to say on this on today's podcast. It does sound like there are too many ex-civil servants running the show (SKS included) and AC was surprised to learn that SG had control of what they call "The Grid", which is essentially No 10s message plan for the weeks/months ahead.

Also the Boris Johnson thing makes her look like a backstabber. Who'd want someone like that in their office?

Keir was very keen. Initially..

Civil servants at Sue Gray’s level have no allegiance to any particular political party. They are there to do their jobs whomever is in Government.

Surely this isn't the first time a mandarin (for want of a better term) has been given a political role by a government?

Can't see it's anything to do with her being a woman, more about poor judgement, dodgy dealings re Ireland/her family/salary etc, and she seems to have rubbed up a lot of folks the wrong way, all in all not great for a job like that. Also the Boris Johnson thing makes her look like a backstabber. Who'd want someone like that in their office?

That's a very good point!

It was not just the report. Senior civil servants are involved in sensitive government decision making and governments must be able to trust their civil servants. How can they do that if just before an election they jump ship to the opposition taking with them knowledge of those sensitive discussions?

Even though SG jumped to Labour, Labour ministers will now be acutely aware that this is something civil servants might do and that may make them even more reluctant to seek their advice.

I think they were high on polling or something

So many bad decisions now crashing down for them

I do think that giving Sue Gray a primo job offer just after her work on a report which was (quite rightly imo) very critical of the Tory administration, looked really bad.

If an idiot layman like me can see that, surely any decent politician must also have noticed, including the ones making the suggestion and the one signing off on it. Whoever that was, ultimately SKS is responsible.

I have now read the Duffield article and it says more or less what I expected it to say.

https://archive.ph/7XLO7

Starmer has a problem. Sacking Sue Gray won't solve it.

This is the Sue Gray interview. A blustery day in Belfast.

I'm actually surprised that SKS has shot himself in the foot like this. I'm used to a steady stream of accusations from the left of the party and honestly tuned it out.

I know it was bitterly disappointing to them that Corbyn didn't get a good run, and that the middle management tendency cleared house after they took over.

However, (who knew) they are the ones who were right all along. A moderate anti corruption leader who has become mired in sleaze. A man claiming the centre of the party being undone by infighting and resignations. A huge majority and deeply unpopular policy choices?

100 days. You can at least agree he hit the ground running.

Starmer, and only Starmer, has to be to blame for accepting gifts. He was Leader of the Opposition when Boris completely screwed up by a lack of self-discipline. Starmer was head of the CPS. He has to know, as any public servant would, that taking gifts of any sort is problematic.

I would love to hear Rosie Duffield's take. She warned of boys clubs. I would not be surprised if there was an element of that. There is also a whiff of kitchen cabinet, something that Boris was also guilty of. Campaign boys cut off from the Civil Service, and thinking they know better. A good Government is a creative tension between strong, principled political leadership, and an experienced, neutral, Civil Service.

That said, Sue Gray, especially her background of running a pub in Northern Ireland's borderlands, is fascinating. No idea of what to make of her, though a short video clip suggests real charm and charisma. Would love to sit next to her at a dinner party.

The rewriting of Kemi's history is interesting. Not that long ago we were all very worried about the extent to which the Civil Services was captured and influencing Minsters on gender issues. Then we had a Woman's Minister who made real progress in pushing things back, including challenging the Scottish legislation which we hated. That Minister now says that she had to face off her senior Civil Servant, Sue Gray. Absolutely credible. But no, its Kemi, and we don't like Kemi, so she has to be "coattailing".

If Sue Gray was pushing for No 10 staffing to be broader, to pull in more with experience of Government, she was probably right. A tight campaign team is probably right for a campaign, but running a country is different. But who knows. I agree the language is interesting.

Rosie Duffield quote about Starmer

"He is a politician with no political talent"

Rosie nailed what I have been saying for years.

i posted this on the Rosie Duffield thread but this interview also contains Duffield's analysis regarding how Sue Gray has been treated, so I thought I'd post it here as well:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/08/rosie-duffield-interview-labour-sue-gray-women-misogyny

https://archive.is/7XLO7

The honeymoon ended very, very quickly.

But if bird-brain Lisa Nandy is one of McSweeney's co-conspirators, it's hard to be optimistic about the direction of travel of the Labour Party.

I remember when I first read the article, and thought that's why some of us are getting this sense that business is the main section of society Labour wants to woo, is sort of explained by the origins and financing of Labour Together.

I hadn't heard of this grouping, but had heard via many sad long term Labour friends who had started to feel they weren't welcome in Labour. They weren't Corbynistas but more traditional Labour and often spoke of how procedural measure were used to isolate or determine outcomes of meetings that should have been left to take their own decisions. I just thought it was factions stabbing each other in the back.

So at the least, even if Labour continues to be a bit adrift, it sounds like we are less likely to hear about it.

That's interesting. I was just looking at the Guardian's opinion section to see how the love affair is going. There's a standard semi-humourous piece by Marina Hyde, gently mocking Starmer, and another by Rafael Behr, with what seems to me a rather fairer analysis of the Gray/McSweeney conflict. But all with the general tone of, lessons learnt. Certainly a lot less enthusiastic than Andrew Marr's weekly fanboi pieces in the NS, which must surely be becoming embarrassing now? But if bird-brain Lisa Nandy is one of McSweeney's co-conspirators, it's hard to be optimistic about the direction of travel of the Labour Party.

Earlier in this thread someone said, asked was Morgan McSweeney going to be any better. Because I am so bad at names it just didn't click with me.

But he was (is?) the main architect of the strand / faction who worked to de-Corbynise Labour. Partly through the group Labour Together that was funded by big business.

... Having become well-known in Labour circles, McSweeney first came to attention in Westminster for his work with Labour Together, which he used as a vehicle to persuade Labour MPs to stay in the party under Corbyn and, rather than defect or actively agitate, wait for his defeat and then fight to retake control. It was this group that eventually became the power base behind Starmer’s leadership bid.

Starmer was earmarked as a prospect early on. At a Labour Together dinner for journalists shortly after the 2015 election, Reed, Lisa Nandy, McSweeney and others were holding court when it became clear that a special guest was about to be introduced: Starmer. “It felt like he was the heir apparent. He was their best prospect and they had chosen him rather than the other way around,” one source said.

When McSweeney arrived in the leader of the opposition’s office after Starmer’s leadership victory, he was methodical in ensuring that Corbyn supporters were removed from every lever of power inside the party, from the general secretary’s office to the most minor committee. He was determined, allies say, to get rid of any obstacle to the total power of the leader, whether that be opponents on the national executive committee, malcontents in Labour HQ or awkward votes at party conference. Early in his sights was Richard Leonard, the party’s leader in Scotland. Rebecca Long-Bailey was swiftly out of Starmer’s shadow cabinet. And then, Corbyn himself.

McSweeney’s critics on the left say he and Starmer essentially came to positions of power through a mission to deceive Labour members – to ape the popular parts of Corbynism with 10 pledges they never intended to enact and then to wage a factional war. “The ‘political genius’ praise should be tempered by the fact he basically committed fraud to win the Labour Leadership,” one leftwing source said. “Lying is not a genius strategy.” ...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/16/morgan-mcsweeney-labour-election-guru-profile

Labour Together
https://www.labourtogether.uk/

Since running Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign, the think tank Labour Together has raised massive amounts of money from businessmen who aim to shape the Labour Party’s leadership and policies to benefit the megarich.
https://jacobin.com/2024/06/labour-together-rich-donors-antidemocratic

Morgan McSweeney’s wife received £10,000 from organisation he used to run
Labour Together has donated £210,000 to members of Sir Keir Starmer’s top team this year – almost four times as much as Lord Alli
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/07/morgan-mcsweeney-wife-labour-donation-imogen-walker/

So what is more strange is why Starmer didn't keep him on in the first place, as those who approve his political direction (including Starmer) would surely want him to continue as the man behind the throne.

So maybe appointing Sue Gray was for Starmer some sort of trophy appointment.

Still now the lads are back in charge I am sure the Labour ship will not be adrift any more.

NAMMALT

Cos revealing government corruption is unnecessary tittle tattle….

Still nothing like the post-Referendum governments that preceded it, though.

Personally I am already tired of the tittle-tattle. I realiise it's because the political journalists have little to write about while the massive spending review is going on, and that's happening now because Rishi knew the polls were so dire he didn't bother with planning a budget for next year. He deliberately ran everything into the ground and let the fiscal black hole get worse because he was relaxed about not having to fix it.

This means real policy announcements are further delayed while the spending review is completed, so there's little to write about but Sue Gray, Simon Case and Kier's suits.

It's like Brexit, when there was no plan to analyse and write about so everyone splurged articles on Dominic Cummings and Boris' wallpaper.