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Now that the Government’s “war on Whitehall” seems to be over 👇, a thread on this curious episode.

TL;DR Absolutely nothing has changed in the civil service, apart from the identities of a few very senior office holders (1/20)


Firstly, the ‘war’ does genuinely seem to be over. Congrats to Tom Scholar on his reappointment, kudos to the PM & Chancellor for a wise decision, and to Simon Case for whatever he’s done to bring these pointless hostilities to an end at such an important time (2/20)

But it’s worth asking: what has this latest attempt, accompanied as it has been by ferocious (if mostly anonymously briefed) rhetoric, actually involved?

The answer is, by historical standards, virtually nothing at all. There have been two discernible strands of activity (3/20)

First, there’s been the defenestration of about half a dozen very senior officials, including, most unusually, the cabinet secretary.

But the replacements have been career insiders, cut from the same cloth. Sometimes they’ve been a good bit younger, but not always. (4/20)
This column by @jackmintz raises some concerns as a potential policy response to the expected cancellation of the KXL permit.

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First, Dr Mintz cites numbers for direct and indirect jobs created by KXL for both Canada and USA. It isn’t clear where these numbers came from or if they are permanent jobs. Methods for calculating induced jobs are notorious for their unreliable and non-robust methodology.

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Second, Dr Mintz proposes that Canada retaliate with duties and other trade restrictions, as what happened with aluminum. However, KXL is very different, and this changes the scope of available responses, especially under our trade agreements.

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Canada viewed the US duties on aluminum and steel as violating trade agreements. The retaliatory duties were permitted under those agreements as a response to those violations. They are not permitted in response to cancelling KXL.

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It is also somewhat odd to see an economist arguing for a trade war in any event, especially one tat would be initiated by a small, trade-exposed economy against a much larger economy. No one wins in a trade war.

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Here's a thread of all of @LLinWood's recent 🔥 tweets for your safe keeping.
I think there is a good fucking reason why JOSH HAWLEY has been pushing the fairness doctrine but for social media. How can anyone propose government intervention into what kind of politics gets oxygen when the majority of the House GOP voted the way they did yesterday?


He knows what he is proposing. He knows it is a backdoor. He knows it can entrench and promote white supremacist fascist propaganda forever. He is counting on there being a backdoor when he takes the presidency.

Look at all the calls to police the social media companies for “bias” against conservatives. Look how it propped up the kind of speech that took us to yesterday. “Fairness” and “political neutrality” were euphemisms for forcing platforms to carry propaganda and incitement.

CDA 230 is a sideshow but it’s not an empty one.

There’s a lot of good-hearted and intelligent people who are going to fall for this shit in the coming days. Do not forget where Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz have stood on 230, fairness doctrine, and the like. Do not forget who they were when they took their masks off yesterday.