Grayling Out - Shapps In

[Typhoon]

In terms of the impact on elections, it's pretty much impossible to predict with much confidence - the vote split four ways could lead to any number of crazy marginals and unexpected results. A key cause for concern for the conservatives would be the number of LibDem-Conservative marginals - virtually all of the top 80 LibDem target seats are currently Conservative. Obviously the rise of the LibDems and Greens could also take votes off labour in Labour-Conservative marginals, but the Brexit party might well cancel that effect out. Add on that voters on the left have a lot more experience of tactical voting, and better access to tools to coordinate it and things could get very nasty indeed for the Tories.

To be honest, what might be more significant is how many voters - particularly Labour voters - say 'sod that" and don't vote at all

 

[StaffsWCML]

Nowadays, it's as fair and watertight as DfT can make it. Still, there are always going to be judgement calls and likely someone will feel aggrieved. I doubt whether any competitive tender can get around that. I can't see that as the root of all the problems with UK Rail.

Fair and watertight perhaps but delivering results for passengers......absolutely not. They are more focused on tenders which promise new rolling stock and drivel. To be brutally honest if the train doesn't come new stock is utterly pointless, if the operator doesn't bother to look after the rolling stock properly it will still be as rubbish and dirty as the older trains, so nothing gained.

Someone can however stand up in parliament and say such and such has delivered new rolling stock what a success. Its an absolute joke.

 

[QueensCurve]

Concerning thing was Boris was willing to let him stay in cabinet at all after the last 3 years in transport!

His name is [Al] Johnson. Boris is his brand.

 

[Agent_Squash]

His name is [Al] Johnson. Boris is his brand.

I’m fully aware of his entirely pompous name and the brand that followed - I just don’t want to remind myself that I share the same name as that loon.

 

[mmh]

I’m fully aware of his entirely pompous name and the brand that followed - I just don’t want to remind myself that I share the same name as that loon.

He has a posh name. I'm not sure how a name given to you by someone else can be pompous.

 

[edwin_m]

He has a posh name. I'm not sure how a name given to you by someone else can be pompous.

De Pfeffel sounds pretty pompous to me.

If I want to criticise Coca-Cola then I'll use that name rather than talking about that brown sugary drink. If I want to criticise Boris I'll use the name he prefers to be known by, rather than risking people not knowing who I'm talking about. As far as I can see he deserves most of the criticism he gets and then some.

 

[WatcherZero]

Well Shapps is off to a less than promising start.....

Hes sent out a circular email that he will only read documents that are a maximum of two pages with no exceptions and no annexes and he will be paying particular attention to the margins and font size of documents.
He believes that any problem and its proposed solutions can be laid out in less than two pages and if he feels he needs more information on an issue he will request it himself rather than it being proffered.

That strikes of someone who doesn't care to invest the time in his brief or feels he can make snap decisions with minimal information to hand.

 

[Agent_Squash]

Well Shapps is off to a less than promising start.....

Hes sent out a circular email that he will only read documents that are a maximum of two pages with no exceptions and no annexes and he will be paying particular attention to the margins and font size of documents.
He believes that any problem and its proposed solutions can be laid out in less than two pages and if he feels he needs more information on an issue he will request it himself rather than it being proffered.

That strikes of someone who doesn't care to invest the time in his brief or feels he can make snap decisions with minimal information to hand.

He didn't say he cared about the size of the page! There will probably be a A0 paper order into the DfT soon.

 

[mmh]

Well Shapps is off to a less than promising start.....

Hes sent out a circular email that he will only read documents that are a maximum of two pages with no exceptions and no annexes and he will be paying particular attention to the margins and font size of documents.
He believes that any problem and its proposed solutions can be laid out in less than two pages and if he feels he needs more information on an issue he will request it himself rather than it being proffered.

That strikes of someone who doesn't care to invest the time in his brief or feels he can make snap decisions with minimal information to hand.

I can understand why that might sound strange but it's perfectly usual for a minister to have such requirements for submissions. See the second part of the "Writing in Government" section of this guide: https://civilservicelearning.civils...efault/files/resources/informalguidescsv2.pdf

 

[MML]

Just as well he's not heading the Brexit department. A 2 page withdrawal agreement would never be enough.

 

[Typhoon]

Well Shapps is off to a less than promising start.....

Hes sent out a circular email that he will only read documents that are a maximum of two pages with no exceptions and no annexes and he will be paying particular attention to the margins and font size of documents.
He believes that any problem and its proposed solutions can be laid out in less than two pages and if he feels he needs more information on an issue he will request it himself rather than it being proffered.

This is an open invitation to submit very vague details of a problem and solution with the hope that it would slip through. Regarding the underlined section, is he going to check the margin and font size of every document? If so, he's got too much time on his hands. I'm surprised he hasn't specified the font or line spacing; there are some decent condensed fonts out there if you want to get a lot in, and double line spacing makes annotation easy

That strikes of someone who doesn't care to invest the time in his brief or feels he can make snap decisions with minimal information to hand.

Or knows he won't be able to get his head around technical detail so is going to worry about minutiae. ​

 

[mmh]

This is an open invitation to submit very vague details of a problem and solution with the hope that it would slip through.

It isn't, rather the opposite is true. Succinct submissions should reduce the possibility of that, not increase it.

Regarding the underlined section, is he going to check the margin and font size of every document? If so, he's got too much time on his hands.

He won't, but his private secretary and office will before it gets to him.

This is just how it works, he's doing nothing unusual.

Or knows he won't be able to get his head around technical detail so is going to worry about minutiae.

​

It's not a minister's role to know the minutiae of everything, that's what his Ministry is for. That's not to say ministers cannot have in-depth understanding of some issues, but they cannot know everything about everything in their Ministry's remit. That's the civil service's role.

 

[WatcherZero]

I can understand why that might sound strange but it's perfectly usual for a minister to have such requirements for submissions. See the second part of the "Writing in Government" section of this guide: https://civilservicelearning.civils...efault/files/resources/informalguidescsv2.pdf

Yes that suggests updates should be 2-3 pages, but also writes that "A written briefing for a Select Committee appearance can often be the length of a substantial book and will be carefully indexed to enable the witness to turn quickly to the page containing the relevant fact." And goes on to explain that financial submissions should be thorough. Also "Proposals for public spending should be scoped, planned and developed to offer best public value for money using the Treasury’s better business cases approach recommended by the Treasury’s Green Book and should follow the guidance given in Public Sector Business Cases Using The Five Case Model and use the templates available at the Green Book web pages." (which are quite lengthy).

 

[717001]

The BBC says Chris Heaton Harris has been appointed a transport minister.
But it doesn't say what part of transport, or whom he replaces of Grayling's team (of the 4 ministers, Andrew Jones is Rail minister).
He's MP for Daventry and was at one time chairman of the ERG Brexit group.

Edit: Harris is to be Minister of State (ie No 2 at the DfT), replacing Michael Ellis.
No specific rail responsibilities, the rail minister remains Andrew Jones.

Paul Maynard has now replaced Andrew Jones but presumably areas of responsibility could be shuffled https://www.gov.uk/government/minis...ary-of-state-for-the-department-for-transport

 

[Typhoon]

Grant Shapps, I really wouldn't trust him to run a hamburger stall, in fact its astonishing he's an MP let alone a minister in the cabinet.
… I find it astonishing that three people of such staggeringly low calibre, proven to be untrustworthy, should have eminent positions in public life.

Peter Oborne (Daily Mail) on 'The Week in Westminster' (Radio 4) available on BBC Sounds.

Promising, eh!

 

[jon0844]

Peter Oborne (Daily Mail) on 'The Week in Westminster' (Radio 4) available on BBC Sounds.

Promising, eh!

Bloody hell, I don't think he's anywhere near that bad. It was a little dodgy having a different identity to push a 'get rich quick' scheme, but not illegal as far as I can tell (although I believe he got in trouble as he did continue doing it while an MP and didn't declare the fact?).

He seems pretty smart IMO. Not saying he'll do a great job, and I've already pointed out how he likes to be in a photo claiming all the credit for something good happening, but all this might work in our favour in the long run.

Only one way to find out of course; time.

 

[Typhoon]

Peter Oborne (Daily Mail) on 'The Week in Westminster' (Radio 4) available on BBC Sounds.

Of course, this could say a lot about Peter Oborne. He was actually more scathing about Pritti Patel and Gavin Williamson. The other two journalists (from The Times and The Guardian) were more considered and did not mention Shapps at all!

I fear we may be living in interesting times.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Paul Maynard has now replaced Andrew Jones but presumably areas of responsibility could be shuffled https://www.gov.uk/government/minis...ary-of-state-for-the-department-for-transport

There's another change too according to the DfT web site: George Freeman is a Minister of State - no details of role.
Paul Maynard (MP for Blackpool) has done the rail job before, under Patrick McLoughlin, and at least knows the brief.
Andrew Jones was rail minister and Roger Ford has done a scathing piece about his statements on CP6 enhancements and relationship with the rail industry.

 

[mmh]

Yes that suggests updates should be 2-3 pages, but also writes that "A written briefing for a Select Committee appearance can often be the length of a substantial book and will be carefully indexed to enable the witness to turn quickly to the page containing the relevant fact." And goes on to explain that financial submissions should be thorough. Also "Proposals for public spending should be scoped, planned and developed to offer best public value for money using the Treasury’s better business cases approach recommended by the Treasury’s Green Book and should follow the guidance given in Public Sector Business Cases Using The Five Case Model and use the templates available at the Green Book web pages." (which are quite lengthy).

Which are different cases. I was trying to give a factual response rather than supposition. The defined formats for submissions is a fact, not something I was putting an argument for or against.

I'm a civil servant in a central government department. I've had, I think, 7 ministers - they're transient by their nature. All of them have had near identical requirements for submissions as its claimed Shapps has. Often they haven't changed at all between successive ministers, sometimes they've had minor changes, which personally I've presumed is them just carrying on with how they had things in their previous department. As I said, it's all "policed" by their private office anyway. I've not worked at Transport, but I've no reason to believe they work differently from any other department.

It's not reasonable to deduce anything about his approach from this reported email as it says nothing out of the ordinary.

(That's 7 ministers excluding juniors, lord alone knows how many it would be including them. They really do come and go.)

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The DfT has clarified the rail responsibilities of the various minsters under Grant Shapps as Secretary of State.

Chris Heaton-Harris has responsibility for Rail (and therefore franchising).
Paul Maynard has responsibility for HS2, NPR and TP Upgrade, Crossrail, East West Rail, and Aviation (inc Heathrow expansion) - so major projects.
Baroness Vere has freight (inc rail), and light rail.

Looks like Paul Maynard has either the best or worst job in transport, depending on your point of view and how things turn out.
Last time round he was the franchising minister.

 

[Mikey C]

The DfT has clarified the rail responsibilities of the various minsters under Grant Shapps as Secretary of State.

Chris Heaton-Harris has responsibility for Rail (and therefore franchising).
Paul Maynard has responsibility for HS2, NPR and TP Upgrade, Crossrail, East West Rail, and Aviation (inc Heathrow expansion) - so major projects.
Baroness Vere has freight (inc rail), and light rail.

Looks like Paul Maynard has either the best or worst job in transport, depending on your point of view and how things turn out.
Last time round he was the franchising minister.

Any job must be better than being responsible for franchising, which is a complete shambles at the moment!

 

[Typhoon]

Interview with Grant Shapps on bus travel 'You and Yours' 01/08/19 starts at 31:40. Quite encouraging (if a bit simplistic).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007662

 

[The Ham]

Interview with Grant Shapps on bus travel 'You and Yours' 01/08/19 starts at 31:40. Quite encouraging (if a bit simplistic).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007662

It'll be interesting to see if there's a move by government/DfT to put out offers for grants for electric buses.

 

[Goldfish62]

It'll be interesting to see if there's a move by government/DfT to put out offers for grants for electric buses.

They already have. There was a round of grant funding earlier this year for zero emissions buses, which follows years of grant funding for low emission (ie, hybrid) buses.