Following Guido’s story yesterday that BEIS had published an 83-page report on how the net zero transition must navigate “structural inequalities and institutional racism“, it looks like the Department has had second thoughts on the merits of their own research. As of this morning, the report is no longer available. Apparently it was published “in error”…

Given the report was commissioned specifically by BEIS, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that “published in error” really just means “this made us look silly“. The fact department sources were calling the report “meaningless babble” last night made that pretty clear. It turns out Guido wasn’t the only one to laugh at all this: 

So spads are briefing they're embarrassed about docs their own departments publish & which they themselves have to sign off – i.e government not even pretending to control the government. Normally they try not to break kayfabe so a sign this gvt is particularly gripless/clueless https://t.co/Ck3eFpRjtP

— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) October 19, 2021

Presumably this means the second volume of the report – the one with all the great policy suggestions – has also been canned…