Will the civil service block Tory Euroscepticism?

Summer

Shall we get this headline right:- " Will the Civil Service block the British people's desire to remain a democracy?

We know the civil service is full of lefties and place-men, so a clear out of the Augean Stables owing to the need to reduce public sector jobs, will not be a bad thing.

The Civil Service work for us, get it working!!!

johnC

A lot of questionable assumptions here. Isn't it possible that the FCO might welcome the reliance on our diplomatic skills to push tne British agenda in Europe, and look forward to benefiting from the enhanced reputation that this country will have in the world with David Cameron as Prime Minister ?

Kalvis Jansons

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Lisbon-ref/

Remember that you can also help by telling others about it!

Another important petition on this topic is http://petitiononline.com/sptklaus/petition.html.

Vulture

Any wise Prime Minister (Churchill, Thatcher); and even some unwise ones (Bliar) sidelines the FCO and gets their own people in to drive their foreign policy. This is because the Foreign Office is a nest of traitorous fainthearts who have long since sold the pass and forgotten that they are paid to represent the interests of this country.

We see this most blatantly in the Middle East, where ex-ambassadors to the region are regularly wheeled out by the BBC to defend whichever Arab tyranny happens to be in the spotlight that week. Only last month an FCO mandarin was in court for a hate-filled rant against 'F*****g Jews' in a London gym.

Exactly the same anti-British spirit is at work regarding the EU. Our diplomatic corps has been toiling hard for decades to subsume this country into the new EUSSR. Unless Dave ignores them, they will - just like the BBC - do their utmost to undermine his Government and betray their country, as they have been doing since the good old days of Burgess and Maclean.

Mark Cannon

The FCO will try. Whether they succeed depends on whether Cameron/Hague are more like Thatcher than Major in character. Her campaign for a rebate is the model to follow. Major was just being petulant and weak.

Paul B

The civil service and civil servants should do as they are told by the lawfully representatives of the people. If they don`t, the door is that way, make sure you close it on the way out.

Philip McNeill

Those with suffrage should be made to watch reruns of 'Yes Minister/PM' before voting.

Rob C

It's not up to Whitehall how they 'create negotiable policy positions' any more than it should be that of Cameron's team. It is up to the British people what we want or don't want from Europe - or even if we want to be part of it all all!

It is that very 'you will do what we think is best for you' attitude that sums up everything wrong with this government (and Europe).

As our 'democratically elected' representatives (MP's) and servants (Whitehall), it is their job to undertake our wishes not theirs and that is what WE pay them for! This goes a long way to explain why so many people are increasingly disillusioned with politics. Cameron gets it (or at least appears to), Gordon Brown clearly doesn't and the EU certainly doesn't. Most of us will accept fundamental political changes like Europeon integration if, following a open debate, that is the Majority view. This clearly isn't the case now and we are getting fed up with being pushed around & fleeced. Government needs to be very careful as it is exactly this kind of situation where they get so out of touch with their people that leads to revolution - particularly in difficult times! I don't see myself as a revolutionary, but if the only way to get a referendum was a mass march on the houses of parliament to force an election now then I wouldn't hesitate! Our democracy and freedom was hard won by many lives over the years and it is our debt to those people to ensure it isn't steamrollered now...

BrianSJ

Yes, the EU is a wonderful gravy train for Sir Humphrey, and eagerly giving in to everything is so much less work than standing up for British interests.

Norman Dee

So lets get this right,what you are saying that within the goverment there are a bunch of unelected high ranking people who have been placed in their positions on a "grace and Favour" basis and we cannot do anything about it. Sounds like the EU to me ?.

Simon Wood

Surely we cannot expect Civil Servants to do what they are (extravagantly) paid to do, namely act and negotiate in the best interests of the British public. It seems perfectly reasonable that we should give away our hard won rebate in return for Blair's appointment as President. Cheap at half the price.

Publius

The replacement of politics by the "beamtenstaat" -- i.e., the administration of things by "experts", never changing irrespective of who is elected to office. Very European, that. That is how they do things. That is why they just cannot understand the Anglo-Saxon way of doing things.

Hawkeye

There is a simple solution to the FCO problem - abolish the FCO. Open a new "Exterior Ministry" and people it with completely new staff.

If mandarins get in the way of policy then get rid of the mandarins. One or two public "executions" and the rest will get the idea very quickly.

John the Pessimist

Its up to the Civil Service to provide advice to the sitting government of the day as to the potential consequences of their actions. Just because some people have deluded themselves into believing they can renege on international treaties and obligations without consequence, does not mean it is true.

William Blakes Ghost

At the end of the day their title is 'Civil Servants'.

They'll do as they are told or be damned!

It's time the Whitehall bureaucracy was treated in the same manner as the Brussels bureaucracy!

Ray

One of the great boasts of Europhiles is that the EU actually employs relatively few civil servants. Which, strictly speaking, is true.

However, as Pete Hoskins' post illustrates, one of the EU's greatest triumphs is that it doesn't need a huge, cumbersome bureaucracy of its own. Instead, it has successfully co-opted the national civil services of its member states to do its bidding for it - often in covert defiance of their political masters.

Make no mistake, it is the European Union, rather than Al Qaeda, that is truly our country's 'enemy within'. Chalk up one more reason for Britain to quit this abomination.

Publius

"It's time the Whitehall bureaucracy was treated in the same manner as the Brussels bureaucracy!"

That is, with arse-kissing deference. They write the rules, the treaties and the "constitutions" and deliberately make them so impenetrable that only they can understand them. Thus they secure the permanence of their jobs and the permanence of their power.

Publius

@John the Pessimist
"Just because some people have deluded themselves into believing they can renege on international treaties and obligations without consequence..."

Ah, just leave it all to the experts, eh John? They know best. They know how to manage decline.

Let the people stick to the ennobling pastimes of shopping, sex, and reality television.

Personally, I'd rather do what I think is right and take the consequences, rather than have my life dictated to by some paltering bureaucrat.

Verity

No point in laying down the law to them on blogs. They can't be sacked.

BrianSJ

Ministers must not fall into Sir Humphrey's trap of trying to be the head of their department. They are not the employer or the dept head. That is Sir Humphrey. The Minister is the CUSTOMER acting on our behalf. If she doesn't like what she is offered, then she can take her business elsewhere.

In2minds

It's not just the Civil Service but all public sector workers that the Tories need to be aware of. But then reigning back this over-large bunch of self-serving jobsworths is why many people are thinking of voting Tory. Is Dave up to the task?

Liz Brown

Any Civil Servant who blocks Conservative moves to participate less in Yruop gets the boot too de sweet - end of conversation. They are paid by us to do what is best for Britain and they need to hear that message loud and clear

JR

Sorry guys, the blog is rubbish, the article itself picks up on a good point.

Most civil service across Whitehall and their current New Labour Ministers are instinctively anti-european. That's because the Thatcher, Major and Blair governments have got us in so deep it is actually against Commission law or ECHR to do qa huge amount of things. And the problem is that its almost impossible to get out of that situation - its not a case of Ministers or civil servants not wanting to do it. For instance ECHR is now effectively embedded in case law in the UK therefore even if you abolished the Human Rights Act you could get rid of the impact on the UK law. And when you see the word infraction this means multimillion battles the UK is never likely to win with big compensation payouts to the claimant. That is what civil servants worry about. Oh and the fact that they can't advise Ministers to put Bills or regulations before Parliament that ar likely to be ECHR non-compliant.

Blame Thatcher, Major and Blair not in this case the civil service.

David Bouvier

JR - the point is that civil servants can advise in different ways. I recall from Matrix Churchill that a civil servant seeking a ministerial signature on a public interest immunity certificate advised it was his duty to protect classified information despite the risk to justice, while neglecting to advise the minister that he could simply declassify the information instead.

There are many subtle ways of framing a problem that alter the outcome.