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Gareth Wiltshire's avatar

“In politics, you need to take people with you.”

This is where the civil service falls down. It thinks the “people in this statement is them - those working in the legal quagmire of policy and apparent rules. They miss the point.

The people in politics are the electorate. The civil service is to do the electors bidding as demonstrated through the election of parliament. I get that people do not cherry pick particular policies and never engage in the very important details of any given policy. But the civil service fails to even feel the direction of an electron result. It merely continues on its way, doing what it thinks is best for someone (quite often not the British public) and makes sure all that politics happens somewhere else to someone else.

A reminder of who the people are seems needed.

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Alan Haley's avatar

In your implicit defence of Musk & Co, you try and make excuses for a strategy which was just downright foolish and doomed to failure from his first radical utterances.

Indeed, the thing that prevented total demolition of (yes it’s true probably bloated) a state, WAS the law, WAS the democratic processes.

Then there was the MARKET - freedom of investors to wield their own view on the folly of the DOGE and the actions of Trump.

The idea that any leadership can forget they have to ‘bring those three entities with them’ is arrogance and stupidity in the extreme.

What we are watching is an admittedly flawed system of democracy and a ‘free’ market, defeat a conflicting system of authoritarian populists intent on pulling down the system of state around them.

Like you said, it will need time and patience. But it will succeed in defeating Trump.

And by the way Margaret Thatcher also thought she could just shut down old industries without giving one thought to the destruction of communities around them. Her hamfisted, insensitive approach there is only just being repaired today. Britain would have been in a better place if she’d listened to those who advocated patience and time.

The problem is, politicians don’t have the time to make the really fundamental changes.

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