It’s a mandarin circular firing squad in Whitehall this morning as the row over Antonia Romeo’s upcoming appointment as Cabinet Secretary hits the headlines before poor Chris Wormald has even been shown the door. Last night, ex-Foreign Office Permanent Secretary Simon McDonald told Channel 4 News “due diligence has some way to go” if Romeo gets the job. There are questions over historic bullying allegations and expenses abuse. McDonald is not alone in suggesting she’s hardly a low risk choice…
Defensive measures have now been activated, with ‘a government source’ telling the Times‘ Steven Swinford:
“This is a desperate attempt from a senior male official whose time has passed but spent their career getting Britain into the mess it finds itself in today. A computer says no culture, that cannot challenge the status quo… Antonia is a disrupter. She isn’t settled with the status quo. She is one of the few senior officials that has always fought against the computer says no culture embedded in the British state…”
Whitehall officials are attacking each other in broad daylight. A total mess…
Justice minister Jake Richards on Times Radio this morning, asked about Matthew Doyle’s peerage:
“It’s right this process is being scrutinised. We to need have a proper investigation into how the process worked, exactly what was said to whom, how the vetting process failed.”
He also blamed the House of Lords for being “archaic“:
“I wasn’t aware of this letter patent process coming several weeks after the announcement. It is archaic and it is odd and it doesn’t fit modern times. And that’s why the PM and Darren Jones announced on Monday that we are going to look into this.”
Starmer was aware of the Times story revealing Doyle’s links to the sex offender and still proceeded with the peerage anyway twelve days later. Despite the Lords authorities saying he could have blocked it…
New figures from the Office for National Statistics show GDP increased by 0.1% in December. This follows a 0.2% rise in November and a 0.1% contraction in October…
That is lower than the expected 0.2% growth. In the last quarter of 2025 services showed zero growth, production grew +1.2% and construction contracted by 2.1%. Sclerotic…
That brings total growth in 2025 to 1.3%. Lower than the 1.5% predicted by the OBR…
The Cabinet Office has finally admitted that they have spent more than £365,000 on social media influencers. The department has consistently refused to answer FOIs and written questions on the matter…
In a written response to Tory MP Mike Wood, Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds said:
“Spend on influencer costs (exclusive of agency fees) since July 2024 to the date of this PQ is £365,331. This figure is reflective of currency conversion rates at the time of the request.”
That is the total spend since July 2024 via advertising and communications firms OmniGov and Pablo Unlimited. No doubt that figure will only continue to go up. Nick helpfully adds that “some data has been withheld due to commercial and wider sensitivities”. Meanwhile Starmer’s ‘New Media Unit’ has an eye-watering £13.2 million budget to propagandise the activity of the government. Might take a little more than a few TikToks to save Starmer…
Green councillor Anne Cross, for Heathfield and Mayfield on East Sussex County Council, boasted at a recent meeting:
“My grandchildren and I painted some cards – Valentine’s Cards – at the weekend which we are going to be presenting to the men in the camp in Crowborough as a welcome.”
So continues the tragicomic farce of the Green Party (led locally by deputy party leader Rachel Millward) attempting to deal with intense local anger at the installation of hundreds of male asylum seekers at a local training camp site. The satire books will have to be rewritten – if you own a satire book take it out and throw it in the bin…
Speaking on the Labour chaos over the last few weeks, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told The Guardian:
“You call it a sh*tshow, I say it’s unforgivable…It does look to people outside that we’re more interested in ourselves and less interested in preventing chaos. […] We’ve not done enough, and this has got to be the moment of reckoning where we say not just what are we here for, but who are we here for?”