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The secrecy obsession of the current Government is one of its most depressing features. It impairs policy making, prevents consensus, keeps business in the dark, and has been counter-productive to the supposed goal of strengthening our negotiating position ft.com/content/25b1eb…
Take this story first, how is business supposed to prepare for no-deal Brexit without knowing what tariffs or trade agreements will be in place? These are core business questions, and as @hhesterm says in a good thread, should actually be public 2/
It should be noted that DIT is almost certainly not solely to blame here, the secrecy obsession comes from the top of Government, and this is quite likely a Number 10 instruction to, haha, 'maintain control'... 3/
Throughout the whole of 2018 no update was given on the progress of replacement trade agreements, the first we heard was from a leak in January which embarrassed the Government. Regular updates from the start would have prevented that. 4/
Secrecy leads to terrible policy making. International agreements need extensive consultation, to identify our important offensive and defensive interests, in great detail. At best we've had grudging consultation with non-disclosure agreements, preventing proper conversation 5/
(an exception, the only one I can think of, for the setting of trade remedies. A lot of consultation, and as a result even though there are some questions asked about the results, there is no embarrassment. The model that should be followed gov.uk/government/con…) 6/
Secrecy is actively counter-productive to international negotiations. The aim of the PM was presumably to ensure only one channel, hers, but it doesn't work like that - a good negotiator will be building intelligence from the other side's business, politicians, thinktanks etc 7/
If all the people the other side's negotiators talk with say much the same, you have a strong position. If they all say different things, you have confusion, and 'what do they want?'. A fundamental negotiating mistake in the same way related to the 'tough negotiator' nonsense 8/
Of course for stakeholders to say the same you have to carefully build consensus, so it isn't forced, which the secrecy obsession has also prevented. Forged by excessive consultation and briefings, which never happened 9/
A point helpfully made in reply. Secrecy probably reflects lack of confidence, and even if it didn't originally, it soon comes to mean that in everyone's minds, not least the other side in negotiations. 10/
And Government is not learning. The inadequate plans put forward for future consultation on trade agreements with Parliament and others show that. There is nothing in here on reaching a wide consensus position. 11/ assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
We've also heard nothing substantive, despite promises, about consultation in the next stage of EU discussions. It is all just part of the game of getting a meaningful vote passed, there is no intent to do things differently 12/
A word of praise for those trying to keep track of this Government's activities against the backdrop of secrecy, notably the @instituteforgov. Though they have frequently joined those of us complaining of secrecy 13/ instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/uk-deserv…
Take-away: Continued secrecy is actively damaging the Government's international negotiations and there is no sign of that lesson being learned. Until it is, our negotiations will continue to go badly. 14/ end
