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...

Then we can simply call them a whistleblower. Don’t see anything wrong with behaving nobly when there is shit all around you and tens of thousands dying as a result, wihike millions of others lined up to pay the cost for another ten years or so.

Also, salaries of both civil service and government are paid for by the public. So their ultimate responsibility is towards the society that they are supposed to serve, not the frigging government.

The deal as a civil servant is that you either do as your democratically elected Minister requires, or you resign. Officials advise, Ministers decide.

Civil servants can, and often do, hold strong views, particularly in their areas of expertise. But they cannot make those views public.

Suggesting that civil servants should ignore or act against the elected Government is basically saying that you don’t want democracy - or at least, only a type of democracy that is constrained by your personal views. Historically, that approach has not gone well.

OverZoomed exactly.

I hope for their sake that the individual isn't close to retirement as it's possible they could lose their pension.

Suggesting that civil servants should ignore or act against the elected Government is basically saying that you don’t want democracy - or at least, only a type of democracy that is constrained by your personal views

There is an exemption for whistle blowers. (not sure this would qualify though as it wasn't revealing secrets).

undermining the civil service who sole purpose is to support the elected government

I've always seen the civil service's role as keeping the country running despite the elected government. Maybe I watched too much Yes Minister when I was young.

There was an investigation announced within 30 minutes but Cummings (also a civil servant) potentially criminal act won't be investigated.

DC is not a civil servant. He's a SpAd employed by the Conservatives not the Civil Service.

Cummings isn't a Civil Servant. He is a Special Advisor. Not the same thing.

@Aesopfable spads are temporary civil servants. That's what the guidance says. It doesn't really make much sense but it's true.

Ex Senior Civil Servant, me.

Temporary still not governed by same rules, SPADS have different rules in CSC

Here's the source for the fact they are civil servantswww.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/special-advisers

lurking they are not subject to the same rules as civil servants and are not employees of the crown, unlike civil servants. The only real way in which they resemble civil servants is the rules is around business appointments and not being able to influence the government to personally benefit (can't force procurement to favour their own company, and so on). They are accountable to ministers for their conduct, not permanent secretaries, which is who civil servants are accountable to. They can be fired at will or due to change in government, unlike civil servants.

They are NOT CS! Spads have rules but not the same as CS.

And DC broke the rules with his press conference

There is an exemption for whistle blowers. (not sure this would qualify though as it wasn't revealing secrets).

There are processes for whistleblowers. Twitter isn’t part of it.

And they weren’t saying anything that an awful lot of people were thinking...

(Spads are a special category of temporary civil servant, with their own T&Cs and Code, but they are not members of the Home Civil Service. The fact they’re paid by the Crown does put restrictions on their activities eg political campaigning. Always entertaining to see them having to clear out their offices at the start of an election campaign because they’ve had to resign. Except for the specialists or the really sad one who it’s clear no one at Central Office rates.)

To be fair, I do not see anything wrong with this tweet. Whistleblower must have seen no hope under this government and under these conditions. Twitter is as good a medium as any and did turn out to be very effective for the person so why not?

if you can get bullied out of your job for not pretending to believe that up is down, and not repeating things you know to be untrue, or doing things you know to be damaging to your country, there may come a point when, instead of accepting unending misery or topping yourself, you express your anger and frustration.

Even some of the highly trained, selected top Civil Servants, with decades of experience, who you might expect to have crushed all remaining human weakness, have reached their breaking point.

Do you have to give up your sense of humanity and responsibility if you sign up to be in civil service?

Experimenopause Civil servants are not allowed to send out personal political tweets from the CS twitter account. Obviously. It’s a sackable offence. It’s not the same as ‘having no humanity or responsibility‘ to want a politically neutral civil service.

Even some of the highly trained, selected top Civil Servants, with decades of experience, who you might expect to have crushed all remaining human weakness, have reached their breaking point.

Yes, I know quite a few SCS who resigned last summer after the prorogation of Parliament proved to be the point at which continuing to serve the government was not compatible with their personal ethics. A significant loss as they were among the most brilliant, effective and principled civil servants I worked with in my career there.

But that’s the point - you know the rules. You take those roles because you believe an impartial civil service, with all its failings, or preferable to the alternative and similarly believe that a civil service in which the government of the day can put trust and faith is in the best interests of the public.

Undermining that trust, no matter your own views of the government of the day, damages that service and your colleagues. So if you can’t do it any more, you do the right thing and resign (and generally make more money and work fewer hours than you did in the SCS.)

Spot on Jassy

What Jassy said ^^^

If you can’t, in good conscience, carry out Government policy, then you resign. And are free to say what you want. That’s the deal.