The bureaucratic blob is winning the long war against Brexiteers
Why is the Government giving Mark Carney a new job? Stepping down as governor of the Bank of England, he has been handed a role advising ministers on climate change ahead of a big international environmental summit to be held in Glasgow later this year. Fine, he is no Greta Thunberg, and it is at least welcome that ministers are seeking to mobilise private finance to address green issues rather than impose the hair-shirt enviro-Marxism favoured by Extinction Rebellion. But why him? Mr Carney is a darling of the metro-Remainer establishment, a public official who struggled for three years to hide his antipathy towards the public’s wish to leave the EU. These were meant to be yesterday’s men.
While the opinions of that establishment – often internationalist, always metropolitan, and invariably “woke” – were routed at the general election, the individuals went nowhere. They still run the Oxbridge colleges and the quangos. They populate the civil service, the charity sector and the cultural world. They are creeping into the big corporations, where their priority is enforcing all the latest politically correct dogmas instead of making anything as profane as profit. Once, they might have been described as Blairites, given their technocratic faith in the managerial powers of experts and their piously liberal social views. Now they are a permanent ruling class that calls the shots whoever happens to be in power. When confronted with genuine radicals who want to dethrone them, the new establishment becomes the “blob”, intent on preserving the status quo, a perversely conservative force given that these people are often self-described liberals. And I fear the blob is attempting to reassert control. They got their way when the new Government appointed Andrew Bailey, a steady-as-he-goes character, to replace Mr Carney as Bank of England governor, overlooking the two Brexit-supporting contenders, Helena Morrissey and Gerard Lyons, who would have challenged the cosy orthodoxies of the central bank.
They have mustered their forces to crush the sensible idea of merging the Department for International Development into the Foreign Office. (The easy alignment of interests between civil servants and NGOs on this issue, incidentally, illustrates exactly why the state should not be in the business of doling out aid.) They don’t want to rock the boat on Huawei or HS2. When Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General, reasserted “the Government’s complete commitment” to the European Convention on Human Rights last week, it was disappointing for Brexiteers but music to the blob’s ears.
The establishment knows it has a fight on its hands, given that this is in general a Government that still appears determined to do things differently. But appointments like Mr Carney’s are dispiriting. Not only are they a missed opportunity (I would have given the job, if any job was needed, to the climate rationalist Matt Ridley), but they reaffirm the legitimacy of a group of people who otherwise have none. Enough of that.
Once, they might have been described as Blairites. Now they are a permanent ruling class that calls the shots whoever happens to be in power