David Cameron should urgently reverse his decision on restricting the number
of SpAds if his Ministers are to be masters of their departments.
The payroll bill for
spads in the final year of the last Labour government, in 2009/2010, was # 6.8 m.
«Legatum has risen from nowhere, taken over by Philippa Stroud the
former SPAD for Iain Duncan Smith, director of his think tank the Centre for social Justice and Christian fundamentalist.
Unveiling the revised special advisers» code alongside a refreshed model contract
for Spads, Cabinet Office minister Lord Bridges said the change «takes into account» the recommendations of Pacac.
Morgan, Gibb and the whole pack of rotten
spads from Policy Exchange need to be thrown into the Thames and washed out to sea.
Like many of that generation of New Labour
SpAds who glided into the Commons, the reality is that his primary value was as a backroom adviser.
Michel advocacy
with spads is not clandestine - it's advocacy.
And the new PM's
spad appointments reveal that she chooses people she trusts and whose loyalty she can rely on.
«It alters the expectation of
what Spads can demand of officials, setting up a new potential for conflict.»
It wasn't until he had recruited
more SPADs loyal to his policy rather than the system that he was able to get the department in shape - evidence, were any more needed, that the original restriction on special advisers was a big mistake.
When Hayden Allan was sent from the Tory press office to be Liam Fox's
spad at the Ministry of Defence in 2010 it was widely assumed he was going there to be Andy Coulson's nark, keeping an eye on Liam for No. 10.
Now she's joint chief of staff to the Prime Minister - one of three ex-Sky people on Theresa May's ever - growing
spad list - and I wish her well!
«The fact the code now
says Spads can instruct officials on matters of presentation feels like a step back towards the days of Alastair Campbell under Tony Blair, when the entire government communication service was placed under Campbell's control,» he said.
Just trying to work out the difference between an ambitious former Labour blogger and an ambitious former
Labour SPAD.
Last week Pocket - lint reported how Samsung's potential iPad killer - the Samsung Galaxy Tablet (or Tab, Tape, or maybe
even sPad)- is on course for an IFA unveiling next month, and now a supposed screenshot from Vodafone's systems has turned up, hinting... Read more
It follows a government defeat in the second chamber earlier this month, when Liberal Democrat peer Lord Tyler successfully argued
spads needed to be included because of their influential role as «gatekeepers» in Westminster.
May has 32 special advisers in total, with six «
super spads» in the top pay bracket of # 95,000 - # 142,000.
The Tories have also appointed 18 more
spads since the general election with Cameron and Osborne being especially active on this front.
He has already let it be known that George Osborne's hard hat and yellow jacket photo - ops (a creation of his
ex-BBC spad Thea Rogers) have been ditched and that he will be a full - time Chancellor, unlike his predecessor, who was David Cameron's chief political strategist as well as trying to run the economy.
The other ex-Sky
News spad is Peter Cardwell, a surprise appointment (to many of us) as aide to the new Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire.
Jeremy Corbyn's The Thick Of It - style «Traingate» fiasco demonstrates just how he could do with some media
savvy spads in his team right now.
Of course, after David Cameron's gongs for cronies resignation honours list, we now know that
spads do end up in the House of Lords!
I wouldn't say ex-journalists always make the
best spads.
Which brings me to another Sky News colleague, Poppy Trowbridge, who is to be Philip Hammond's
other spad.
Mr Osborne and Mr Cameron were the rising stars of the
Conservative SpAd classes ahead of the 1997 election when the Conservative campaign guide stated.
Off he strides in his squeaky boots to Casa Bucket,
spads dressed up as the Merry Men following on behind.
Together, the private secretaries and
SpAds make up the departmental court, whose key task is to defuse problems and prevent crises.
After the last general election the party intrusted a whole host of negotiators many of them
unelected spads to thrash out deals on behalf of the party behind closed doors with no mandate from the membership whatsoever.
JH offered to meet up for drink in February 2011 and
spad Sue Beeby warned JH against meeting up for a drink after AC resigned.
The opportunity is there but the means by which the Lib Dems capitalise on that opportunity are far from clear — especially when an anecdote about a curious boy and a dead pig gets more coverage in a day than the Lib Dem conference does over a week (having said that, Lib Dem conference delegates did squeal with excitement when they read about it, including myself, when I sent some late night trolling texts to my former
Tory SpAd colleagues).
Cameron's treatment of his
own spads contrasts with his attacks, during his time in opposition, on the last Labour government over its use of special advisers.
She refers to those mainly Blairite politicos who were fast - tracked from being
Spads into safe seats and then ministerial office as «Princes and Princesses» and names names of those whom she also regarded as disloyal such as James Purnell and Hazel Blears.
Not pictured:
pale SpAd wiping the sweat from his brow in relief, thanking the heavens he didn't hand his boss the navy one.
One conference call between Internet savvy campaigners and
Clegg SpAds trying to defend the original proposals will remain infamous in the party, but we got to the right point in the end.
This is referred to by some as the «Pasokification» of the British Labour Party; the replacement of a working class movement by a class of privately
educated SPADs who often treat those who traditionally have voted Labour with thinly veiled contempt.
A well - placed government source once told me she's «kept on a tight leash»
by spads, in case, as a forthright personality, she is too outspoken in the media...
He also noted that in 1995 Hague caused some concern, including questions in the House, regarding the appointment of an allegedly under qualified and openly
gay SpAd when he was Welsh Secretary.
Or the Andrew hunter, Shaun Bailey Cameron
Remain spads and even though Ukip or ex labour Brexit voters know that those Tories backed remain, they'll sooner vote Tory, as the Tories will have got Brexit through the commons, and labour could lose up to 70 seats
Its internal autocracy, safe seats for the boys (and girls) mentality and increasing reliance on public
school SPADs is what turned people off the party in the first place.
I remember a particularly punchy encounter with Charles Clarke when he was home secretary, which was assuaged by his astute (female)
spad intervening to leaven the standoff with a joke.
In the industry this type of signal became known as a
multi SPAD signal.
Meanwhile, Osborne's director of communications James Chapman — who he pinched from the Daily Mail earlier this year — comes in as the fourth best - paid
spad in all of government.
«It is obviously disappointing that the Conservative party does not want to open up the work
of spads to public scrutiny now, especially since many of them do a very useful job listening to outside groups and bringing their views to bear in government.
«The fact the code now
says Spads can instruct officials on matters of presentation feels like a step back towards the days of Alastair Campbell under Tony Blair, when the entire government communication service was placed under Campbell's control.
Last week Pocket - lint reported how Samsung's potential iPad killer - the Samsung Galaxy Tablet (or Tab, Tape, or maybe
even sPad)- is on course for an IFA unveiling next month, and now a supposed screenshot from Vodafone's systems has turned up, hinting that the network may be on board for its 3G data plans.
Ministers need
more SpAds to manage their angry bureaucrats: The errors of last week might have been incompetence but it is just possible that something worse might be the explanation.