UK civil service tweet - done on purpose?

[CoRhona]

The official account of the civil service tweeted this earlier, widely thought to be about Boris' defence of Dominic Cimmings:

"Arrogant and offensive
Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?"

I think some poor sod has tweeted from the 'work' account instead of their own.

DH thinks it was done on purpose.

YABU - it most definitely was done on purpose

YANBU - Ooops...

I don’t think accidental tweets have such clarity. I accidentally tweeted something along the lines of cncjfirjzmzalsofn jr from my pocket once... not quite as coherent as the civil service tweet which was perfect in every way.

What a hero!

On purpose and if they get sacked I am sure people would line up around the block to employ them!!

There is probably a whole range of comms staff with access to the account, if it's the same as my department. I would imagine that there are ways of hiding who has tweeted (sign in to the account from a personal device, or someone else's in your household, rather than your work device) but the investigation that will take place won't be very nice unless the person involved owns up. I wouldn't want to be the union rep having to represent the person, despite having a sneaking respect for them. But yes, we civil servants are often despairing at the antics of our overlords.

@StinkyWizzleteets I think the accident would be tweeting from the wrong account, on twitter you can switch between accounts (so have your personal/work both on the same app) and so they could have meant this from their personal but put on the work one in error

JK Rowling has offered to pay their salary for a year. I'd like to think it was deliberately done by someone about to retire.

I now have yet another reason to adore JKR.

I'd think hacked.

I'd think hacked off more than hacked - like most of us who've sacrificed normal life to accommodate Government restrictions in order to protect everyone else and the NHS from dealing with the virus. One rule for them.....another rule for the rest of us? That's not fair and reeks of elitism.

JK Rowing is my hero.

Civil servants are not allowed to make political comments in their personal capacities. So it is highly unlikely to have been been a tweet that was meant for a personal twitter handle and just posted to the work account by accident. The person is a legend and I hope they can prove to JK that it was them. She is also a legend.

The real tragedy is that their actions will have more consequences than cummings did

A relatively new and junior comms person, who had a moment of rage and either decided they didn’t care about keeping their job or didn’t realise this was a sackable offence, would be my guess. Staying completely silent on politics is something that many new to the civil service struggle with.

@ clouds yes the bloody irony - will be investigated, tweeted straight away. Jk rowling amazing!

Well yes, of course it was done on purpose. And I'm sure he or she will get plenty of job offers.

Definitely on purpose. Hero.

As well as JK’s offer of a years salary, there have been job offers including I think from a Think Tank, and someone starting a Go Fund Me. Obviously on purpose!

And yes a hero!

@CloudsCanLookLikeSheep sadly you are absolutely correct ...
and that makes me more angry and despairing of the farce that is our government.

Person .. who tweeted- total hero and I applaud them .

JK Rowling ... I salute her ... stepping up to do what’s right ...
person with integrity who steps up to the moral and financial plate .
Restores some faith in humanity

I love it.

Fair play to them!
Totally deliberate
Career suicide but jk Rowling is going to pay them a years salary so they’ll be ok lol

Even if they had intended to tweet it from a personal account, that’s still not allowed - my husband works in comms in the Civil Service and is constantly annoyed at having to stay silent on political matters online. He enjoyed this tweet very much.

It may well be a contractor rather than a permanent employee - there are plenty of them working in these kinds of roles.

It was brilliant! Hope JK comes through

Good on that person. And on JKR!

For those who didnt know, Boris and Cummings are working to demolish the civil service and privatise its functions (to the benefit of their mates)

This is nothing new, www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mod-wasted-33m-on-botched-privatisation-attempts-report-claims-10071322.html

That tweet from a personal account would still be gross misconduct for most companies on the basis that you should never share anything negative about your employer. Def done on purpose!

Awful that this tweeter will be sacked and Cummings won’t. I don’t recognise CS from that article linked to. In my experience CS people want to help others, often working on shit pay and long hours. They do not want to have to carry out the latest political knee jerk thing their ministers dreams up to be done in the next milisecond, so they become very pragmatic, skilled at thinking through alternatives and trying to make things work, all the while keeping the essential stuff that Ministers aren’t interested in, going on with fewer and fewer staff. It’s very convenient for purely ‘ideas‘ people like Dominic Cummings to have CS staff there as scapegoats..