Why so much fuss over Stella Braverman?

[lastminutepanicking]

I’m just wondering who on earth cares? Can’t understand why this is such big news.

Reasonable to ask civil servants who are paid by the taxpayer to do your personal bidding ìn relation to a private matter?

Would it also be reasonable for her to ask civil servants to do her online shopping for her? Buy presents for her family? Clean her house? After all, she's busy doing important Home Secretary things....

Do you regularly ask your colleagues to carry out tasks related to your personal life in working hours? Even if the contract you signed explicitly forbade it, regardless of how mundane or unimportant you might consider that task?

If she asked her SPAD why did he deny she'd been caught speeding? Or is lying to the press a standard part of the job description?

I bet junior staff get asked to looked into stuff all the time that isn't work related. She should've known better and known who she could trust of course.

Again I doubt she was hoping for a 'favour' just seeing if 1 to 1s are possible.

TBH if this was the only thing sjmhe had done I would be thinking "meh". But it isn't is it. It's the latest in a line of ignoring the rules ad she has been sacked for it before. That is what makes it important.

Yes think I asked someone to book me a hair appointment once <runs>.

Hmm

Would it be okay do you think for her to also ask the civil servant to sort out her council tax, babysitting, hairdressers appts because she's a busy woman with bigger fish to fry?

Yes maybe we expect too much of a former Attorney General to respect Ministerial and Civil Service Codes.

I mean if you can keep your job after leaking top secret confidential information the sky really is the limit.

I’ve worked in four different Civil Service departments and I can assure you that absolutely does not happen as routine. Not least because most Ministers do manage to adhere to the code.

Just because you demonstrably have no particular morals or ethics doesn’t mean you should judge everyone by your own / Suella’s standards.

This is not the CEO with a PA who buys his wife her birthday presents. This is the Home Secretary who is bound by rules, one of which is seperation of private affairs from government affairs.

Saying I bet it happens all the time, doesn't make it OK. It makes it typical of a Government who think the rules don't apply to them.

It lets you off the points but Iirc if you are caught speeding within 3 (?) years of the course, you can't do another one you have to have points.

Again I doubt she was hoping for a 'favour' just seeing if 1 to 1s are possible

I know without asking that would not be possible. Why would it be? She was just a member of the public, no one special, although she was trying to make herself special...

She’s a Tory - labour fanatics inside CS doing anything to get her out.

She’s a threat to Sunak - so think opportunity.

She’s anti migration - so anyone who is pro EU or Migration sees this as an opportunity.

but she only has herself to blame. Gave her enemies the opportunity.

I argued with a relative over this when the news first came out because I thought she'd done something wrong. Turns out I was talking bollocks and didn't have a clue what happened. There is literally no problem here (apart from the speeding, there's no excuse for that, Burnham and Welby have just been done for it too, what is going on with all these idiots?).

121 courses are available and it's perfectly reasonable to ask advice from your colleagues whether they are civil servants or not. Can you imagine the awful robotic office atmosphere? Braverman coming out of a meeting with Sunak and saying to her PS 'OMG he's a right bellend, I thought I was going to explode, do us a favour and make me a cuppa with 5 sugars, I need it, and pass those chocolate biscuits.' 'Seen anything good on Netflix? I'm on my own tomorrow and want to watch telly' 'My fella wants a dog and I don't, wasn't your auntie in the same situation - how did they work round it?' No, Suella, it's all against the ministerial code to make personal requests and ask advice. Asking someone if they know anything about 121 speeding courses (which are available) is as trivial as the rest.

Asking someone if they know is trivial. Asking someone to sort it is against the ministerial code. If she has done nothing wrong I can't see the problem in explaining what she did do. But she deliberately avoids doing that so people will read their own conclusions. Actions and inactions both have consequences and while a petulant teen may not understand that I would expect someone at her level to.

It is possible and they are frequently held for slebs etc.

Andy Burnham

Justin Welby

Tom Tugenhat

Robert Jenrick

They all just got on with it and faced the consequences - didn't lie about it

Not so Ms Braverman that's the difference - she's brought all this on herself

Out of interest can you ask your Private Secretary to make you a cup of tea or would that result in a Civil Service wide melt down?

Out of interest did anyone in the Home Office lose their job after providing Amber Rudd with misleading information which led to her resigning?

@Janiie do you have a complete list of laws it is acceptable to break if one is busy?

@Janiie , are you going to listen to an actual expert who works as a Civil Servant? Are you for once going to accept that you're wrong?

No. Her Diary Secretary is a civil servant and would not be responsible for the diary management of her private life, only her ministerial duties.

Someone who is an expert or someone who identifies as an expert? How do you know they're an actual expert? And an expert in what? Working in civil service departments... ?

Ex Whitehall civil servant here too, who has actually worked as a PS. Adark inthelightness is totally correct.

Another expert...
🤣

Hmm maybe busy doing Home Secretary things and thought reasonable to ask a spad to see if a 1 to 1 was possible? Not, armed robbery you understand just a 1 to 1 speeding awareness course. Seems reasonable to me

Spads are not civil servants. They are political appointments. Asking a spad to do something like that is one thing, asking a career civil servant is quite another.