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George Grylls Profile picture
@georgegrylls
Aug 5, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
NEW analysis by me + @oliver_wright has shown that over half of appointments to departmental boards this year have gone to allies, colleagues and university friends of cabinet ministers

thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/t…
Non-executive directors are appointed to departments through “fair and open competition”. They were introduced by the coalition government in 2010 to recruit external voices from the world of business with a focus on delivery.

thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/t…
See this piece by IFG's @AlexGAThomas for some good analysis of the role of NEDs.

instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/michael-g…
But in recent months a large number of politicos have been appointed to the roles across Whitehall, including….

Henry de Zoete at CO
Gisela Stuart at CO
Nick Timothy at DfE
Rachel Wolf at DWP

+ more...
thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/t…

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More from @georgegrylls

George Grylls Profile picture
Nov 29, 2024
To understand Britain’s decision to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, it is worth rewinding to a key UN vote in 2019.

China and Russia - with the support of Syria, North Korea and Belarus - said the dispute was a matter of "decolonisation".

They won.

A thread/ Image
Image
Let’s start with the history.

In the 1800s, Britain grouped the Chagos Islands with Mauritius into a single colony, even though the archipelago is 1,300 miles away from Port Louis.

When Mauritius was granted independence in 1968, the Chagos were carved out and kept by UK. Image
The US needed a remote island in the Indian Ocean to use as a military base - and had asked Britain to help.

Britain offered up Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands.

Now, DG can host B-52 nuclear-capable bombers and reload US submarines with torpedoes. Image
Read 15 tweets
George Grylls Profile picture
Jun 1, 2023
Baroness Hallett wrote to Boris Johnson on February 3 with a list of 150 questions about the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Some of them are pretty savage – basically asking Johnson why he didn’t sack Hancock, why he didn’t attend Cobra in Feb 2020. Some of the best...
"In relation to the response to Covid 19, did you have any concerns regarding the performance of any Cabinet Minister between January 2022 - February 2022?

(...) did you receive advice from the then Cabinet Secretary that Matt Hancock MP, should be removed from his position?"
"To what extent did you believe that coronavirus was akin to influenza? Did you hold and express the initial view in early 2020 that Covid-19 was not a serious threat and was akin to swine flu?"
Read 10 tweets
George Grylls Profile picture
May 30, 2023
Exc - An escalating subsidies war between the US and China is set to cause serious damage to the UK economy, according to leaked internal government documents seen by the Times.

thetimes.co.uk/article/us-chi…
The documents, circulated among a small group of cabinet ministers, say the Inflation Reduction Act demonstrates US determination to defend its key industries against China, even if the protectionism comes “at the UK’s expense”.
The analysis says the UK cannot adopt “a wholesale activist industrial policy” like the US, EU or China because it is only a “mid-sized economy outside major trading blocs”.

But nevertheless it suggests UK will need to adopt a more interventionist approach to the economy.
Read 4 tweets
George Grylls Profile picture
Dec 9, 2021
An FOI tale in three parts.

Earlier this year, I requested all Whatsapps between Boris Johnson and Lord Brownlow about the funding of the Downing St flat refurb.

In August, @cabinetofficeuk said there were no Whatsapps.

Surprise, surprise, we now learn there were Whatsapps.
@cabinetofficeuk Downing Street was asked today if they would release the Whatsapps.

They refused.

PM's spx: “The Prime Minister is acting in accordance with the rules and you’ve got Lord Geidt’s report.”
UPDATE

@ICOnews has now launched an investigation into Cabinet Office.

Spx: “We’ve received a complaint regarding the Cabinet Office’s response to a freedom of information request around the renovation of the 10 Downing Street flat, and will be making enquiries.”
Read 4 tweets
George Grylls Profile picture
Mar 3, 2021
A Towns Fund thread:

Robert Jenrick’s constituency has just received the maximum amount of money it could have possibly received from the Towns Fund.

1/
Jenrick has denied that he had anything to do with his department's decision to select Newark. But here he is at the 2019 election.....2/

Jenrick has insisted that Jake Berry, his junior minister, selected Newark to bid for funding.

Jenrick has admitted, however, that he selected Darwen, in Berry's constituency, to bid for funding.

Newark is the 270th most deprived town in the country, Darwen is 289th.

3/
Read 8 tweets
George Grylls Profile picture
Oct 2, 2020
Conservative backbenchers are up in arms over Robert Jenrick's housing reforms.

Thanks to @GeorgeGreenwood we have a map to show why they're so furious.

Blue = no. of houses increase
Yellow = no. of houses decrease

1/5
The argument is over a "mutant algorithm" that determines where 300,000 homes/year will be built.

Rural constituencies in the Tory shires get whacked - look at Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Kent, etc.

So, for example, the Cotswolds sees 739 more homes a year. 2/5
Meanwhile, urban areas outside of London see the number of homes ***SHRINK****

Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leicester, Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bournemouth to name but a few. 3/5
Read 5 tweets

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