Alex Thomas
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alexgathomas.bsky.social
Alex Thomas
@alexgathomas.bsky.social
4.4K followers 810 following 1.2K posts
Institute for Government: civil service and all things effective government. Ex-Cabinet Office, Defra, Dept of Health
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alexgathomas.bsky.social
Sorry for earnest post. Here is Marc Jacobs for the few people unfamiliar
Label: Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs in collaboration with Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs
November 10, 2025 at 10:30 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Nothing worrying about it - am fully embracing middle age
Blood spattered room with text: “caption this with the 2nd to last text you sent”
October 26, 2025 at 11:57 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Write up in Politico London Influence from @masonboyowen.bsky.social here

www.politico.eu/newsletter/p...
MINISTER, REMOVE MY GAG: Top Whitehall wonk shop the Institute for Government went studs-up after ministers effectively banned civil servants and other public officials from doing public panels and outward-facing events earlier this year. Now it's claiming at least a partial victory. How come? Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds wrote back to the think tank after it fired off a missive making clear that "it is important for civil servants to speak in public about matters for which they have responsibility." New guidance referenced by Thomas-Symonds in his letter - shared with Influence — also stresses that "civil servants are able to take part in stakeholder engagement and sector engagement activity." Read the full take from the IfG here.
October 23, 2025 at 1:41 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Not good all round. But where *on earth* did this come from? Just made up
Extract from Times story “Senior advisers in Downing Street are sympathetic to that critique, but have found their room for manoeuvre constrained by an "unwritten rule", which dictates that cabinet secretaries cannot be dismissed until they have spent a year in the post.”
October 21, 2025 at 9:31 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Obviously easy to dunk, but it is a good sign if new politicians are getting to grips with finance and trade-offs and wrestling with them. Denying reality is the danger, not trying to balance the budget
October 5, 2025 at 10:25 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
One of these things is not like the other…

How can anyone seriously suggest people with a medical condition like IBS shouldn’t gather, discuss and make sure their workplace is set up well so that they can work?!
Quote from a spokesperson in a Times article: "While supporting diversity in the workplace is important, people will question the proliferation of such groups - including one to support those with irritable bowel syndrome.”
August 21, 2025 at 8:06 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
What a way to do business
Map of Ukraine and occupied territory Trump shows Zelensky in his Oval Office meeting Map says “Names and boundary representation are not necessarily authoritative”
August 18, 2025 at 8:01 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Was going to say something about Karl Kennedy / Alan Fletcher and medical advice but thought instead I’d share my discovery today that Sam Nivola (White Lotus, incest storyline etc) is John Mortimer’s grandson
Picture of Sam Nivola Picture of John Mortimer
August 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
I have tonight come back from Cornwall where I enjoyed beaches and tiny roads leading to my dad’s burst tyres. Broken Britain, secession now
A tyre with a 2-3 inch rip and very much flat A nice beach
August 1, 2025 at 11:17 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
There is a problem with socio-economic (SEB) background in the civil service

42% of the most junior grades are from a lower SEB; just 19% of the most senior

70% of the SCS are from high SEB

Unlike other characteristics (sex, ethnicity, disability) which have been growing, SEB has remained stable
Chart showing socio-economic background of civil service staff by grade. The more senior the grade, the higher the SEB
August 1, 2025 at 10:39 AM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
[Rocking in a chair on the stoop] I recall George McGovern’s famous youth-quake victory of 1972
Although the McGovern campaign believed that its candidate had a better chance of defeating Nixon because of the new Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution that lowered the national voting age to 18 from 21, most of the youth vote went to Nixon.
July 17, 2025 at 11:26 AM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Somewhat ambiguous government response here

Lots of words… and changing guidance to be clearer is good. But the govt needs to say more straightforwardly that civil servants can participate in Q&A stakeholder, trade and similar events
about gagging civil servants. "As the civil service management code released in 2016 makes clear, civil servants must clear in advance material for publication, broadcast or other public discussion which draws on official information or experience," she said. "The government continues to approve public activity by civil servants on a case-by-case basis, and civil servants, such as permanent secretaries, continue to be accountable to parliamentary select committees in the usual way." The cabinet office said it had been a "core principle, under successive governments, that ministers are publicly accountable for government decisions. This is why ministers answer for the government in the media and parliament." They said they were tweaking the new rules to give more flexibility to departments. "If the department feels there is a strong case for them to proceed with the activity fronted by civil servants, then they should be gridded through the usual process."
July 13, 2025 at 5:21 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Story tonight about our joint open letter to The Times

We’re calling for the guidance that is preventing civil servants from participating in public and stakeholder events to be withdrawn

www.thetimes.com/article/2e4f...
Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing demands to ditch a new government edict that bans senior health officials, military leaders and even the head of the civil service from speaking openly in public. In a letter in today's Times the leaders of more than a dozen think tanks, including the Royal Society and Nuffield Trust, warned the prime minister that the new rule was having a "chilling effect on public discussion" with some events already being cancelled. In private, several former cabinet secretaries are understood to have made their concerns clear to Downing Street. The new rules have even been condemned by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former head of communications, who was himself not shy about controlling the messaging of No10. In their letter the think tanks describe the new rules as a "mistake", saying that "effective government" relies on public servants hearing directly from businesses, charities and citizens to help them make better policy. They warned: "They should be able to explain government activity to those same groups. It the guidance] is causing confusion and a chilling effect on public discussion. The government should withdraw it."
July 13, 2025 at 5:18 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
What happens to wreaths after prime ministers and presidents have laid them? These are just… left there for vans to use as buffers
White van parked closely against Starmer and Macron wreaths laid at the Charles de Gaulle memorial
July 11, 2025 at 8:58 AM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
I think it’s show don’t tell - putting a bit of stick about is of course part of the reason for a reshuffle… but don’t brief it out…
Francis Urquhart gif: “someone’s in trouble… someone’s going to get it in the neck… but not us, eh?”
July 3, 2025 at 10:55 AM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
And some new charts from @teodorgrama.bsky.social as an anniversary present
Chart showing permanent secretary moves since the general election
June 30, 2025 at 3:37 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
This is interesting

The line to take should someone want to dance around what I suspect is a mix of cock up (nobody realised what the guidance they issued actually meant) and conspiracy (No10 did want to clamp down)
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "The principle of civil servants rules around media engagement are well longstanding and established, having been clearly outlined in the civil servant management code 2016 and the civil service code. "It has always been the case, and a constitutional principle, that ministers are ultimately accountable for decision making to parliament and the public - so it is right they are routinely scrutinised by the media and MPs."
June 26, 2025 at 8:57 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Gabriel - I think you’ve gently glided away from the point. Of course there can & should be clearance processes, civil servants should not be spouting off on govt policy. But informed stakeholder and civil discussion will require officials to carefully speak and participate
June 26, 2025 at 7:59 AM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Light relief as I descamisado it outside the Casa Rosada earlier
June 18, 2025 at 9:57 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Quite an important step towards the Citizens’ Charter and the culture of targets and transparent choice that was, in the end, a big shift in government to through the 1990s and 2000s. Big news!
Traffic cone
June 5, 2025 at 9:24 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
It was all over by 11pm when Sonia came second. Better the devil you know I guess
May 17, 2025 at 10:03 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
I know it’s a cliché really, the next Barbenheimer, but here’s my Eurovision-USPGA mash up
UK Eurovision entry on television with USPGA golf on an iPad in the foreground
May 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
For unparalleled content like this
Hannah White looking quizzically(?) teasingly(?) at Jonathan Jones during our panel discussion Me brandishing a copy of our draft Bill on the civil service David Sainsbury speaking at the event today
May 12, 2025 at 5:31 PM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Took a year, but… (via Politico Playbook)
May 2, 2025 at 7:40 AM
alexgathomas.bsky.social
Tamara Finkelstein will be leaving Defra after the spending review - the permanent secretary shuffle continues

Though if this were a shuffle it would be normal to announce her next move. If it implies her departure from the civil service that would be a loss - for someone who was nearly cab sec
Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed announces that Tamara Finkelstein is leaving the department
April 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM