New post | Saving the Union? Philip Rycroft on Whitehall and the Scottish independence referendum Some thoughts prompted by Philip Rycroft's excellent recent talk. publiclawforeveryone.com/2024/10/02/s... @bennettinstitute.bsky.social - ThreadSky

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profmarkelliott.bsky.social • 150 days ago

New post | Saving the Union? Philip Rycroft on Whitehall and the Scottish independence referendum

Some thoughts prompted by Philip Rycroft's excellent recent talk.

https://publiclawforeveryone.com/2024/10/02/saving-the-union-philip-rycroft-on-whitehall-and-the-scottish-independence-referendum/

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proftomkins.bsky.social•150 days ago

Very interesting, Mark. Philip is dead right about the const’l myopia at the heart of Whitehall, most especially in the Cabinet Office. The point I’d make is that it’s much more a civil service problem than an elected member problem. It’s a function, in my view, of centralisation.

proftomkins.bsky.social•150 days ago

MPs have the inestimable advantage of returning every weekend, and every recess, to their constituencies, across the country. Civil servants do not. There is much to be said about how different Whitehall and Westminster are from one another, in their appreciation of the country.

paulsilk.bsky.social•150 days ago

And, paradoxically, devolution has diminished the cadre of senior civil servants who understand Scotland and Wales

paulsilk.bsky.social•149 days ago

I should, of course, have said "senior civil servants who work for the UK Government"

profmarkelliott.bsky.social•149 days ago

Yes - I'd taken that to be what you meant.

anuragdeb.bsky.social•149 days ago

Same with NI. There's a (apocryphal?) story about UK civil servants coming to Belfast shortly after the Brexit vote and being briefed about NI. A map of our six counties was used. One UK civil servant asked the name of the blue coloured county in the middle, to be told it was in fact a lake.

profmarkelliott.bsky.social•150 days ago

Thanks - that's a really interesting point.

profmarkelliott.bsky.social•150 days ago

Thanks, Adam. That's a very good point (and one that Philip touched on, I think in answer to one of the questions).

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