[The Weeping Angel]

Wait, I thought the problem was that there was a boys' club in Number 10.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ball knows absolutely nothing about her, and is posing as some sort of Whitehall face.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I noticed Romeo, if anything, being too political in her social media, sounding like a Tory minister, rather than a civil servant. I'm hoping that was her just having a particular understanding of the job, rather than being her actual personal brand.

I see the Telegraph has already gone for Romeo bullying claims covered up. I thought civil servants needed a rocket up them, from the likes of Dominic Cummings. All sounds a bit woke, like rightwing Tories talking about Chagossians.

[The Weeping Angel]

There's more here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0zjw5pz48o

s the UK's consul general between 2016 and 2017 Dame Antonia's job involved promoting UK trade and business in New York, in the immediate aftermath of the referendum to take Britain out of the EU.

The BBC has learned that 47% of staff in New York said they had experienced bullying in the workplace in an annual staff survey - the highest level ever recorded anywhere in the Foreign Office.

It is understood that in most government departments or divisions the figure is usually in low single figures.

The survey covered a 12 month period, including three months in which Dame Antonia was in post.

Dame Antonia's critics acknowledge her abilities in the documents seen by the BBC, with one saying she was "smart, dynamic and really talented." Another said she was an "extremely intelligent, innovative thinker".

But there was also criticism of her management style, with one person saying she was "very demanding, very disrespectful, very threatening".

"I'm used to big egos but this was something else. The minute she heard the word 'no' she'd say I'll go to your boss. But it was worse than that. She would go to your boss's boss and your boss's boss's boss," they added.

Someone else told us: "If you don't say 'yes' to her she's not only going to screw your career, but she'll screw all of those around you."

Her approach, it was claimed, "inflames rather than calms a situation" and "creates a culture of fear and anxiety".

The majority of the complaints seen by the BBC were from female members of staff.

The allegations were so serious a former ambassador to Japan, Sir Tim Hitchens, was flown to New York to look into it.

His work examined allegations of "bullying behaviour, financial probity, and putting her private objectives above those of the wider Consulate-General or government".

The BBC has been told the Foreign Office's investigation concluded there was a case for Dame Antonia to answer about her behaviour towards colleagues, but there was no case to answer about what was called "financial probity" and is understood to refer to expenses.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Funny how this wasn't any barrier to promotion under the Tories, but now it's "there goes Starmer, terrible judge of character, awful woman, blah".

The Telegraph seem to have left out "by the Tories" after "bullying allegations covered up".

We're going to see a concerted media campaign to get her out before too long.

Someone else told us: "If you don't say 'yes' to her she's not only going to screw your career, but she'll screw all of those around you."

What actually happened here? Isn't that rather important?

And what happened to these "questions to answer"? Did she answer them? Isn't that important too?

[The Weeping Angel]

I think the best option might be to say we're no longer considering her to be cabinet secretary.

[Tubby Isaacs]

You might be right.

This is a pretty extraordinary intervention from a few days ago.

A former top civil servant has urged No 10 to do “more due diligence” as it prepares to replace the cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, with Antonia Romeo, the frontrunner for the role.

Sir Simon McDonald, the former permanent secretary of the Foreign Office, said he had tried to warn No 10 the process needed to start from scratch and it was vital that the prime minister followed a thorough procedure given the importance of the role.

He told Channel 4 News: “The due diligence needs to be thorough. If the candidate mentioned in the media is the one, in my view, the due diligence has some way still to go.”

I find the "I'm not saying this, but" way of speaking deeply irritating, but it's quite the thing to say anything about this subject.

[mattomac]

Anyone remember when Patel was accused of bullying?

[Tubby Isaacs]

This doesn't sound like the go ahead Tories, does it?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... and-powers

Kay Mason Billig, the Conservative leader of Norfolk county council, said she would no longer take part in local government reorganisation (LGR) or devolution plans in the area, saying the council could not participate in that and simultaneously hold elections.

Black belt in no-can-do.

She's claiming she was bullied into requesting the election delay.

Our friend, the anonymous backbench Labour MP is on hand.

As well as the concerns about the political impact of the postponed elections, some Labour MPs are also sceptical about the wider idea of reorganising councils, disputing the idea it will save money and warning that many of the new unitary authorities risk feeling too large and remote for many voters.

One backbencher said: “I just don’t get why you would do something as complex and risky as this in a first term. It’s a second-term project, at best.”

Local Government reorganization has had this reputation as a minefield since Heath, based on some unpopular structures with funny names, like Avon and Humberside. Is it really much more difficult than anything else?

In fairness, it's mentioned that other MPs support it strongly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Anyone remember when Patel was accused of bullying?

Broke the ministerial code, didn't she?

If it weren't for that statement by Simon McDonald, I'd happily call this out as political bullshit. But that statement is so striking.

[kreuzberger]

Antonia Romeo is not the sole candidate, merely the one anointed by the press so that they can chop her legs off and coordinate another of their attacks on Starmer.

This is painfully transparent.

[mattomac]

Yeah it seems blatantly obvious from here.

Someone moaning about due process when she hasn’t even been appointed.

As for second term, Labour won’t get a second term especially if mumbling backbenchers without a backbone don’t stop grumbling to the press.

[Andy McDandy]

Antonia Romeo is not the sole candidate, merely the one anointed by the press so that they can chop her legs off and coordinate another of their attacks on Starmer.

This is painfully transparent.

Never underestimate the priapic frenzy the British press can work itself into over the most marginal material. In this case, "Latina name and tight-ish sweater".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah it seems blatantly obvious from here.

Someone moaning about due process when she hasn’t even been appointed.

As for second term, Labour won’t get a second term especially if mumbling backbenchers without a backbone don’t stop grumbling to the press.

Indeed. Roger Mosey, a former head of news at BBC TV, has a good article where he makes the point that at least in his time, you had to get someone on the World At One to create an "internal dissent" story. Now every MP can bang out a controversial tweet over breakfast. Lots of backbenchers don't understand the need for any discipline.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... nald-trump

He nonetheless pleads guilty to having overdone this sort of journalism when he held the top job in the 90s. As he says, the audience knew more about the Maastricht factions than they did about what was actually in the treaty, and it's got much worse now.

He says there's no bias in this, it's just shit, and gives some examples of Tories being hit with sensational questions in Government. But I think there is bias- bias to Reform, who aren't even expected to be consistent.

And, yeah, "leave for the second term" likely means it's never done. I'm hopeful that Reform will be kept out of government by at least a coalition. Coalitions may be more democratic, but I can see something like local government reorganization getting blocked by at least one of the parties in it. Do it now. Nobody's going to run for office on bringing back all these district councils.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm wondering if the Government got a raw deal from the elections being postponed. What's the difference between now and 2019 and 2021? Is it just that there was a well-funded legal challenge? If so, then doesn't Kemi need to be holding her hands up for having cancelled a load of elections probably unlawfully?

The other possibility of course is that the advice was less than stark in saying the government would lose, but they took the opportunity to U-turn because they thought it was politically easier. If so, that would be very poor.

[Youngian]

Antonia Romeo is not the sole candidate, merely the one anointed by the press so that they can chop her legs off and coordinate another of their attacks on Starmer.

This is painfully transparent.

Never underestimate the priapic frenzy the British press can work itself into over the most marginal material. In this case, "Latina name and tight-ish sweater".

I've already seen a ' where art thou.' Jeremy Clarkson will be working out how he can fit alphas divorcing Romeo in his column. Meanwhile Littlejohn will remember Cesar Romeo played the Joker in the 60s Batman series. Joker, Romeo, Starmer' s chief of staff geddit? Ha ha ha

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's quite the row in Norfolk.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/25861566.e ... evolution/

District councils want 2 unitaries, the county council wants itself as a single unitary. I think the Tories hold power in both. The Tory county council leader seems to be behaving pretty badly. Some cancelled elections being back on is surely irrelevant to whether the reorganization should go ahead, and she's pulled out of it.

I wonder if there's an opportunity for Reform here to look relatively serious. Back one of the reorganizations, we believe in fewer politicians, getting on with job of making savings on bureaucracy (which people seem to agree with happen).

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've already seen a ' where art thou.' Jeremy Clarkson will be working out how he can fit alphas divorcing Romeo in his column. Meanwhile Littlejohn will remember Cesar Romeo played the Joker in the 60s Batman series. Joker, Romeo, Starmer' s chief of staff geddit? Ha ha ha

Nah, I think they'll go for her birth name (double barreled) and the fact she has four middle names. This will be a sign that she's "typical out of touch woke civil servant", even if she's worked for their (preferred) Tory governments for 14 years too. Anything that went wrong under Tory ministers when she was around will get hung around her neck. Another serial failure promoted by failure Sir Keir.

I see she was at some time a "Gender Champion". That'll be the line against her. She'll get the Father Tessdale in Hot Metal treatment (CND vicar transformed by The Daily Crucible into a militant Marxist enemy public number one)

[Boiler]

'twas Cesar Romero.