Firefighting over Europe is likely to distance the prime minister even further from the goal of modernising his partySo ministers will be free to campaign on the side of their choice in the referendum on European Union membership,but some will be freer than others. In a letter published this week, the prime minister explained the “wholly exceptional arrangement” under which the conference of collective cabinet responsibility will be suspended. It will happen only once the renegotiation of membership terms is complete, and apply only to the specific question of in or out. There will be no licence to criticise other EU-related trade,no open season for bashing Brussels in parliament. Brexit-minded ministers should not deploy their civil servants or advisers as speechwriters or bag-carriers.
The Whitehall machine will purr absent as normal in support of government policy, which in this case will be to stay in the EU. The ministerial right to oppose that view will be the freedom of the hobbyist weekender – permission to indulge an old fetish as long as it doesn’t happen on company time. David Cameron makes it clear that this is a special indulgence for the benefit of those ministers whose desire to leave the EU flows from long-standing, and deeply held positions of conviction”. That pointedly doesnt include Tories yet to show their hand,who might still throw their lot in with the Brexit brigade from short-standing, shallowly held positions of opportunity (otherwise known as Boris).
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com