Peter Hoskin

Will the civil service block Tory Euroscepticism?

Of all the countless leaflets, pamphlets and circulars being handed out in Manchester, one of the most interesting is a glossy collection of essays entitled Cameron’s Britain.  It has been put together by the folk at Portland PR – who recently hosted that “war game” which James reported back on – and has entries on everything from the NHS to tackling global poverty.

As it doesn’t seem to be online, I figured it’s worth quoting from one of the most insightful essays of the bunch: that by Steve Morris, a former Downing St adviser, on the Whitehall machinery that the next government will have to get to grips with.  Norris makes some important points – e.g. that special advisers can be a force for good, and that “sofa government” has its place – but these two paragraphs rather jumped out at me:

“…the Conservative approach to Europe is already a major concern around Whitehall, where many have painful memories of John Major’s Beef War and the infamous “non-co-operation” policy.

EU policy affects not only the FCO, where diplomats are already agonising over how to create negotiable policy positions from Cameron’s statements.

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