with news Boris Johnson might be making a come back, good time for @UKandEU to publish a stocktake on how far we have got on his 2019 promise to "Get Brexit done" - an in depth look at how the state has adapted to Brexit. ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl… First we look at the impact on the size and shape of the civil service: lots more people - numbers up by over 100k since 2016. Not all Brexit of course - covid, asylum etc. But a lot are. And a lot of those are long-term jobs. Brexit = British bureaucrats

Watching HoL constitution committee with @nickmacpherson2 @marksedwill and former first civil service commissioner on dismissal of perm secs. Nick says always been removals but volume has gone up and notes Scholar removed preemptively by Kwarteng Note that @AlexGAThomas and I gave evidence earlier to this. Sedwill also points out similar dismissal of his successor as national security adviser "equally damaging".

This is very good from @DavidGauke. To pick up and expand on one point. When I was in private office, I saw my role as shielding the minister from sub-standard advice. I would tell my fellow civil servants their stuff was not good enough to put in.

https://twitter.com/ConHome/status/1650459774939480066

@DavidGauke same message - but very different when coming from a relatively junior civil servant than from a minister. And if someone was poor in a meeting, we'd call them or their boss afterwards saying the minister was unimpressed and they needed to up their game

Was annoyed at 7.00 and annoyed again at 8.00 by @BBCr4today news presentation of the "aid cap". There is no "aid cap". There was a legislated target of 0.7% GDP to be spent on aid.. a target, not a "cap". No maximum Rishi Sunak reduced that to 0.5% "temporarily" without legislating. Now looked as though that will be baked in to future forecasts. But then we found out govt is classifying lots of UK spend on refugees as "aid"

Another day - remembering back to the leadership election of 2019. @DavidGauke told us why the Conservatives went for the by then unstoppable Boris Johnson Brexit party chair Richard Tice told us how ABB - Anyone but Boris had changed post those disastrous (for the Conservatives) European elections - and "did for the Brexit party"

In two weeks time Boris Johnson will be replaced as Prime Minister.. but he has been a critical political figure of the past decade so over the next fortnight I am going to dip into @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive to paint a picture of him Lets start with early Johnson. Former Eurocrat Jonathan Faull told us why there might have been a presumption that Johnson would understand Europe and the EU

Remember #netzero? Big in 2021 (Net Zero Strategy, #COP26 The risks have not gone away (see India) but the impetus has. New @instituteforgov report looks at how govt can keep its eye on the net zero ball instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/n… we look at the idea of a net zero test which lots of people have recommended (see @CommonsEAC @theCCCuk - and indeed IfG). They can prompt reconsideration of policy - and help achieve policy coherence

I was going to write an open letter to @ChrisMasonBBC to congratulate him on his appointment.. but why write when you can tweet - so here goes. well done Chris. This is an important big job. The BBC News is still the major news source for many of our fellow citizens. So its a job that needs doing well. Some thoughts.

The PM's latest move must be an absolute nightmare for people who have to make the new moves work inside government. Good that the PM has managed to bring back someone who knows him well as head of comms. Saves time building a relationship. His big challenge will be changing the defensive and misleading lines that No.10 have relied on - and got them into difficulty

The Treasury will be pleased their energy compensation package avoided anything that might be consolidated into tax/benefits long-term - like a VAT cut or a UC increase. The Chancellor is worried about long-term public finance risks (rightly) They have made a bet through their loan on long-term energy prices.. may or may not come back to bite them.

Government is a serious business. But this government is not treating it as such.

https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1484222229965643778

Exhibit A - Operation Red Meat - throw out eye-catching policy announcements to "rally the backbenches". Policies should address real problems based on proper analysis, assembly of evidence and be well through through.

so the second of @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive interviews is with @OwenPaterson - done well before the events of the autumn. Another leading Brexit supporter who was @DefraGovUK and @NIOgov SoS under David Cameron. Let's dive in Paterson was a linguist and businessman working across Europe. Whereas it was the EU's treatment of Greece that pushed Davis to support Leave, for Paterson it was the treatment of former Communist countries

Two blockbuster new interviews in the @ukandeu #Brexitwitnessarchive. First up, the first of the resigning #brexit negotiators @DavidDavisMP. He had A LOT to say so do recommend a full read. we asked about the source of his euroscepticism. Not his early employment at Tate and Lyle as some assume. He reminded he was Whip on the Maastricht bill. Described himself as a "civilised eurosceptic" (not a "bastard" TM John Major

So Liz Truss is in charge of the UK-EU relationship. May seem obvious but in February @ThimontJack and I argued that @cabinetofficeuk was the right place to coordinate the relationship instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/m… we assume the "Europe" side of Frost's team transfer to @FCDOGovUK - its a long time since the FCO had serious heft on Europe. That will provide some continuity

Next week Rishi Sunak will deliver his Budget. This week we should finally see @hmtreasury #netzero review. New @instituteforgov report says Chancellor must start talking (publicly) about net zero instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/n… A bit in Budget 2020. Nothing in Budget 2021 or his party conference speech .. but the impacts on revenues from fossil fuels can't be ignored and the system could do a much better job promoting pro-net zero actions

.@jnpowell1 has written an important article in @FT (£ - I assume) about Johnson govt casual disregard for Northern Ireland ft.com/content/bb92d1… Lots of blame attached to Frost and Johnson. But I think he could cast his net wider. As @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive shows there was hardly any consideration of the consequences of a Leave vote in the decision to hold a referendum.

really interesting from @so_says_sally (and not just cos she quotes me) .. my experience a decade ago from @DefraGovUK was that it was really hard to get @DHSCgovuk out of its health service silo and interested in wider policy

https://twitter.com/so_says_sally/status/1443877474123894824

so its great news they are now interested in air quality (they weren't then); we tried to interest DH as was in fuel poverty (hypothermia kills) - no interest. So I think there is scope for depts realising benefits where there are real synergies

the new Levelling Up taskforce under Andy Haldane is interesting for govt structure nerds (and an interesting contrast to govt structures for #netzero) @CommonsBEIS Haldane is perm sec for 6 months (levelling up will take longer than that .. but first focus will be on working out what this means...) reporting jointly to Michael Gove and the PM.

The latest @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive interview with @AJBMarshall is essential reading for anyone interested in how #brexit impacted govt-business relations (more on that to come from us - watch this space) - he led @britishchambers On business frustration in the noughties at increasing red tape - but also concern it was not just Brussels to blame

so its back to Scotland this week in @UKandEU #Brexitwitnessarchive with an interview with former SNP Europe spokesperson @StephenGethins. Lets pick out some highlights... we start with the role the debate about Europe played in the 2014 independence referendum

Interesting to see the outrage at how the govt has gone about deciding the health and social care levy package which suggests people don't understand how tax policy gets made in the UK govt In a way this was exceptional, because it looks as though this may have been a three way decision, involving the Health Secretary as well... normally any tax decision is a Chancellor-PM bilateral at best