Will Greenhow announces his retirement

[Gladys]

28 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

Unprecedented here too, surely?

Possibly, I don't know.  What I do think is that it is telling of a system of a comfortable relationship between the elected and the CS that these types of issues weren't picked up and acted on earlier, before matters reach the near crisis point we are at. 

[Newsdesk]

5 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

He then repeats a rumour that Greenhow was basically given a resignation letter to sign on Monday morning and presumably all his belongings in a bin bag.  Cannan hedges and tries to change the subject, but he doesn't deny it.

This may be linked to a rumour I saw somewhere that Cannan, Lord-Brennan and Poole-Wilson had been seen going into Government Buildings on Sunday.  The interesting thing would be that no one from either HR or the AG's Office appears to be involved, maybe neither could be trusted not to leak to Greenhow.   

I actually hope that’s true as that’s exactly how a private organization would have dealt with it. And if they’ve done that once they can do it again. Bypassing HR would show just how bad they think the culture is if they were worried that he’d be tipped off. If true Cannan has massively gone up in my estimation and should not hesitate in doing this again to someone else. 

[Derek Flint]

1 hour ago, Banker said:

I still think it’s a good time to restructure some departments, home affairs has not got much to control as police, prisons & fire run themselves & could take some of work from DFE, DOI

Before I left the IOM there was talk of DHA being absorbed into the Cabinet Office.

 

[Mysteron]

5 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Paul Moulton's interview with Cannan was as interesting for what was said about Greenhow's departure as about Ashford's:

This may be linked to a rumour I saw somewhere that Cannan, Lord-Brennan and Poole-Wilson had been seen going into Government Buildings on Sunday.  The interesting thing would be that no one from either HR or the AG's Office appears to be involved, maybe neither could be trusted not to leak to Greenhow.   Or, judging from what we've seen from the recent tribunal, do a remotely competent job.

 

1 hour ago, Gladys said:

Or are both, themselves, subject to scrutiny after the decision? 

 

 

Hopefully you're right Gladys.  The knife needs to be wielded, and it needs to cut deep.

[craggy_steve]

17 minutes ago, Derek Flint said:

Before I left the IOM there was talk of DHA being absorbed into the Cabinet Office.

 

That was merely more of Greenhow's megalomania. It may be now that CabO shrinks.

[Bandits]

1 hour ago, Non-Believer said:

Unprecedented here too, surely?

It shouldn’t be unprecedented though. It should set a new precedent that it could happen again to anyone who doesn’t rein themselves in. 

[cissolt]

Personally I feel that Alf, as a former military officer, showed a lack of leadership by allowing this to continue during his time in comin.   We all know HQ wasn't up to the job, a military man may have just been 'following orders' but a proper leader should have stepped up and corrected any wrongdoings.

The fact that neither Alf nor Ashford can acknowledge the failings and issue an apology to Dr Ranson speaks volumes.

 

[Holte End]

2 hours ago, Roxanne said:

Please don’t do this.

Removing Greenhow is a huge action for IOMG.  Yes, there’s a long way to go, but please can we just bask in the knowledge for a little while longer, that two people with far too much power have been removed from office. 

You can’t say it will achieve nothing. It’s already achieved a lot. 

Really you think it has achieved a lot. Lets summarise on whats really happened.                                        A cutting have been taken, dropped into a another pot, which still feeds out the same water source.  Then a new head has bloomed and nobody will be able to tell it from the old. They occasionally splice graft on to the stem, we can all see how well that went. Time to throw the whole plant away and start again, Just leave the soil and compost.

[Roger Mexico]

2 hours ago, Banker said:

With delays in DFE replacement, do you think Alf is considering some wider restructuring with some departments being split up ? Maybe Thomas with housing taking on housing & local authorities from DOI & agencies being dumped from DFE

Moulton asks specifically about DfE being abolished and receives a cagy answer, so there's clearly discussions going on.  Of course there are quite a lot of bits in there that still need doing.  There's also the problem that he's wanting to bring these outside advisors in to other Departments, while getting rid of the one Department that's already run like partly that because it isn't working. 

As was said above this may also be about stopping more empire-building reorganisation.  For example there seem to have been plans to merge police and fire service, which I suspect meant appointing someone who wasn't qualified to run either in charge of both (think of Reynolds as 'Director of Ports').  

[Gladys]

12 minutes ago, cissolt said:

Personally I feel that Alf, as a former military officer, showed a lack of leadership by allowing this to continue during his time in comin.   We all know HQ wasn't up to the job, a military man may have just been 'following orders' but a proper leader should have stepped up and corrected any wrongdoings.

The fact that neither Alf nor Ashford can acknowledge the failings and issue an apology to Dr Ranson speaks volumes.

 

TBF, until the Tribunal matter is fully disposed of (settlement, evidence concerns and any appeal), they have probably been advised not to. 

[Gladys]

11 minutes ago, Holte End said:

Really you think it has achieved a lot. Lets summarise on whats really happened.                                        A cutting have been taken, dropped into a another pot, which still feeds out the same water source.  Then a new head has bloomed and nobody will be able to tell it from the old. They occasionally splice graft on to the stem, we can all see how well that went. Time to throw the whole plant away and start again, Just leave the soil and compost.

Using the analogy, they have cut the flowering head from the plant, so it will not fruit.  They still have to prune out some rotten stems and take water from a different source, but it is a start to cure the plant without killing it, allowing it to blossom and be productive next year. 

What we don't want to see is the remaining rot to be left to infect the whole plant again. 

[finlo]

2 hours ago, Gladys said:

Possibly, I don't know.  What I do think is that it is telling of a system of a comfortable relationship between the elected and the CS that these types of issues weren't picked up and acted on earlier, before matters reach the near crisis point we are at. 

Near crisis point? I think we arrived there years ago.

[Bandits]

17 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

Moulton asks specifically about DfE being abolished and receives a cagy answer, so there's clearly discussions going on.  Of course there are quite a lot of bits in there that still need doing.  There's also the problem that he's wanting to bring these outside advisors in to other Departments, while getting rid of the one Department that's already run like partly that because it isn't working. 

Ask anyone in the private sector and they are vitriolic about the DfE. Almost everyone wants it gone as it’s providing no value to anyone. The outside board model doesn’t work. Most people know that as once more the recruitment process ensures that only the most docile committee-sitters get appointed even if they’re private sector ones. Cannan is going to get no pushback at all from the private sector if the whole thing was shut down. Same with the DOI. If what you say above about Greenhow is true and they just went in armed with pre signed resignation letters then do the whole senior team in the DOI and there will be a street party to rival Douglas Carnival.

People are sick of underwriting overpaid wankers. Cannan is going to get no pushback from anyone if he uses the same tactics again. In fact he may find his popularity ratings go up considerably. 

[Roger Mexico]

14 minutes ago, cissolt said:

Personally I feel that Alf, as a former military officer, showed a lack of leadership by allowing this to continue during his time in comin.   We all know HQ wasn't up to the job, a military man may have just been 'following orders' but a proper leader should have stepped up and corrected any wrongdoings.

Far too much is made of Cannan's military background.  He was only in the army for three or four years I think, plus 18 months at Sandhurst, which was pretty much the minimum.  I rather got the impression it was second choice after he failed to get into university.  More important in this context may be his time in recruitment, which might lead him to recognise a useless HR Department (though I'm not sure there's any other sort).

Of course Quayle was appointed because he was useless and lazy, as many said at the time.  Cannan isn't quite as bad - he lacks Quayle's ego for example - but could have done more at Treasury to stop the mismanagement.  The difference now is that he has a CoMin that  seems to be keener to tackle the problems rather than just do whatever the civil service tell them for an easy life.

[SleepyJoe]

Well he has committed to change in government, so change in government there must be

A reduction in the number of departments would be a very good start