Conservatives are blaming civil servants for their own failings

Conservatives are once again doing what they do best: whining. By ‘conservatives’, I don’t mean conservatives in any meaningful sense, but conservatives in perhaps the least meaningful sense: members and supporters of the Conservative Party. The latest grist for their self-pity mill is their conviction that the government is being undermined by the Civil Service. Specifically, that politically motivated civil servants are targeting right-wingers deemed too effective at advancing conservative principles or resisting progressive causes inside government. 

Victims of this vast left-wing conspiracy are said to include Suella Braverman. The Home Secretary this week dodged a ministerial code inquiry into her request that civil servants arrange a private rather than public speed awareness course after she was caught speeding in June 2022. (This is a cringe-making nothingburger of a story and another reminder that Britain is a deeply unserious country.) Another target of the radicalised Sir Humphreys is supposedly Boris Johnson. The former prime minister has been reported to police again after Cabinet Office civil servants suspected further breaches of the Covid rules on his part.