When even the Guardian goes after him. 4/21/26 Guardian:
Well, what would you do? You’re a top civil servant with more than 25 years of government service. You’ve worked for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May. You went through Brexit hell as a lead negotiator. You were sacked by Boris Johnson and were then brought back by Keir Starmer.
You land a plum job as permanent undersecretary in the Foreign Office and do your boss a favour by appointing his man as ambassador to the US. You’ve already got a knighthood; that peerage is only a matter of time away. Then it all blows up in your face and the prime minister sacks you and trashes your reputation in parliament.
Call it the revenge of the nerd. On Monday we had the case for the prosecution during Keir Starmer’s statement to the Commons. On Tuesday, we got Olly Robbins giving his defence before the foreign affairs select committee. And, in its way, it was quietly damning. Mostly of the government, occasionally – if inadvertently – of himself.
Throughout, Robbins presented himself as a fundamentally decent man. Someone who lived and breathed public service. The sort of man Starmer believes himself to be yet somehow isn’t. An ingenu for whom process is everything. A man governed by ritual. You would guess his sock drawer is pristine and numbered. Someone crushed by his recent sacking. Heartbroken at losing a job he loved.
At one point, he insisted that the two books he knew by heart were the civil service manual and the Book of Common Prayer. Blessed are the geeks. For they shall inherit the Earth. Just a shame that Olly never got to the bit in the prayer book about anything to do with Peter Mandelson always ending in a vale of tears. A shadow of darkness. And unlike previous misdemeanours, this time there shall be no resurrection for him. Possibly not even for Olly or Keir.
No comments:
Post a Comment