These are difficult days for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the civil servants under her command. The Supreme Court kiboshing Holyrood on indyref2 has shredded the SNP’s flagship manifesto commitment.
She is left arguing for the general election to be a ‘de facto’ referendum - a move she admits is not her preferred strategy. The unanimous ruling by judges also raises awkward questions for the officials who have prepared the Government’s independence case since Alex Salmond was in charge.
If Indyref2 is reserved to Westminster, can public servants be used to work on a constitutional issue outwith the Scottish Parliament’s powers? A UK Government-led review will consider the implications of the Court ruling for Scottish Government civil servants.
Mandarins are accountable to Scottish Ministers, but the civil service is reserved to Westminster. Messy. Officials, who have a duty of impartiality, should at the very least be exercising caution on this contested issue.
Ken Thomson, a civil service veteran who worked for Donald Dewar when he was First Minister, failed this test during an internal event with colleagues. A leaked video showed him joking about “breaking up the Kingdom”.
Sturgeon herself would never have used such a phrase, even in jest, given the controversy it would attract. For it to come out of the mouth of one of her most senior civil servants is a massive gaffe.
An event that was probably supposed to inspire junior civil servants will instead go down as a ‘how not to do it’ moment. The wider issue is public perception and what it says about the priorities of the Government.
Voters’ concerns are coping with sky-rocketing inflation, dealing with soaring interest rates and paying for Christmas. They want the Government to be on their side, rather than hearing talk of “breaking up” the Union. Clarification on what civil servants can and cannot be deployed to work on is long overdue.
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