Britannia Radio

This is a new and dangerous twist to this total lack of any standards 
in our government.  Now it would seem that one professional civil 
servant has been corrupted by the same virus.

The Cabinet Secretary, supposed to be an impartial civil servant, 
here behaves like a partisan member of Brown's entourage.  He has 
made no attempt to investigate anything but merely takes the 
"assurances" of someone deeply involved - namely a certain Mr Brown.

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THE TIMES 15.4.09
Tories refuse to back down after call for smears inquiry rejected

      Philippe Naughton and Sam Coates, Chief Political Correspondent

The Conservatives are refusing to accept assurances from No 10 that 
one of Gordon Brown's closest ministerial allies knew nothing of 
plans to create an "attack blog" to propagate political smear 
campaigns in the run-up to the next election.

News of the planned smear campaign emerged at the weekend and forced 
the immediate resignation of Damian McBride, the Prime Minister's 
former head of strategy, who cooked up a series of slurs against 
leading Tories - including David Cameron.

This morning Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, turned down a 
call from the Conservatives [But see below that he has compromised 
himself by jointly writing a book with Ed Balls.  He shoud GO! -cs] 
for him to investigate whether Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office 
minister, had known of the planned Red Rag website which Mr McBride 
discussed with a former Labour spin doctor, Derek Draper.

In the letter to Francis Maude, who shadows the Cabinet Office, Sir 
Gus said: "Tom Watson has made his own position clear." He added that 
the Prime Minister had made clear "that he has been assured that no 
minister or political adviser other than Damian McBride had any 
knowledge of, or involvement in, the e-mails".

But Tory sources said today that the party was not willing to let 
matters lie and Mr Maude, a former party chairman, would reply to Sir 
Gus this afternoon to complain that there were too many questions 
still unanswered.
Mr Maude also wants an assurance from Sir Gus, the head of the Civil 
Service, that he himself has been able to examine Mr McBride's email 
records to make sure that nobody else was involved.

"He says that there's been assurances but from whom and on what 
basis," one senior source said. "The impression Dowing Street is 
giving is that this was a rogue initiative. We are not convinced of 
that fact."

Independent investigations into members of the government would 
normally be carried out by the ministerial adviser on interests, 
currently Sir Philip Mawer, but such a probe can only be triggered by 
the Prime Minister.
In his letter, Sir Gus said that the actions of Damian McBride, who 
as a "special adviser" was officially a civil servant, fell "far 
short" of the public's expectations.

He warned that any repeat of the behaviour by special advisers would 
result in automatic dismissal.

"What happened constituted a clear and serious breach of the Code of 
Conduct for Special Advisers," Sir Gus wrote. "It cannot and has not 
been tolerated."

The Cabinet Secretary confirmed that Mr McBride had not received 
severance pay, adding: "As the PM has made clear, the events reported 
over the past weekend were not acceptable, and fell far short of the 
high standards the public has a right to expect."

Sir Gus said he had written to all permanent secretaries - the chief 
civil servant in each Whitehall department - to inform them of an 
update to the code of conduct.
"In particular, under this strengthened guidance, it has been made 
specifically clear that special advisers will automatically be 
dismissed if they are ever found to be preparing and disseminating 
inappropriate material," he said.

Special advisers are to be required to sign an undertaking that they 
are aware of the new guidance.

The Tory backbencher, Nadine Dorries, who was among those targeted by 
Mr McBride's smears, stepped up calls for Mr Brown to make a full 
apology.
Ms Dorries, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, hit out at both the tone and the 
content of a handwritten letter sent to her by Mr Brown which 
expressed "great regret", but stopped short of a personal apology.

Meanwhile, Mr McBride's co-conspirator in the planned smear campaign, 
Derek Draper, revealed today he was considering stepping down from 
running LabourList, a Labour-supporting website.
He also told The Guardian that he "deeply regretted" his part in the 
smear emails.

"I should not have responded to Damian's e-mail as I did. I should 
have said sorry, that is wrong, I will have nothing to do with it," 
he said.
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COFFEE HOUSE (Spectator) 15.4.09
How can we take Sir Gus O'Donnell seriously when he wrote a book with 
Ed Balls?
JAMES FORSYTH 11:06am

The civil service must be impartial and seen to be impartial. So, 
there should surely be a rule that stops permanent secretaries co-
authoring books with SpAds. Sir Gus O'Donnell's decision to write 
Microeconomic Reform in Britain: Delivering Opportunities for All 
(note the highly political title) with Balls and another civil 
servant, the book has an introduction from Brown, makes it hard for 
the public to look upon him as an impartial arbiter.
Like my fellow reformist radical Fraser,

I think there is a role for SPADs-indeed, I'd actually like more of 
them. But career civil servants must be impartial and be seen to be 
impartial. That doesn't mean they should be obstructionist, or 
advocates of the status quo but they shouldn't lend their name to 
things that are - or appear to be - political.