Spending watchdog doubts UK is capable of managing Brexit and coronavirus info campaigns at the same time
- Reference: 1591174813
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/03/uk_government_unready_to_manage_brexit_coronavirus/
- Source link:
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), an influential public spending watchdog made up of a cross-party group of politicians, said the Cabinet Office could not show how the Get Ready For Brexit campaign led to people being better prepared for the UK leaving the bloc on October 31.
The UK did not, in fact, leave the EU on that date, and delayed its formal departure until January 31. In practice, little will change in the trading relationship until the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.
The PAC says it is concerned about whether the Cabinet Office has the capacity to work effectively on both campaigns addressing the UK's practical departure from the EU at the end of the transition period, and the continuing campaign to manage COVID-19 at the same time.
Meg Hillier MP, chair of the committee, said: "The Government is taking the UK through not one but two incredible, unprecedented political and economic upheavals simultaneously, but it is business, the public and the public purse that will suffer if it gets it wrong.
"The Government has shown it could not fully successfully deliver one such campaign, before the pandemic disaster hit – in that case with a lot of money spent on the overarching message but less success on the detail which changes behaviour. With the nation's fortunes, livelihoods and even lives at stake, the Government must quickly give us confidence that it has learned the lessons and understands the scale of the task of running two campaigns like this, each much more complex and longer-term than either the coronavirus 'stay at home' or the original Brexit date messages."
The Cabinet Office did not start detailed planning for the [guidance for businesses on leaving the EU] campaign until the end of July 2019 and launched on September 1 – "just two months before the UK was expected to leave the EU…"
During the Get Ready For Brexit campaign, which had a possible budget of £100m, the Cabinet Office did not decide to monitor and evaluate its success at the outset. "Just two of the 26 priority actions identified for citizens and businesses had a measurable target at the start of the campaign to suggest what success might look like," the spending watchdog's report says.
Although businesses were crying out for government guidance on the UK's departure from the EU, the Cabinet Office did not start detailed planning for the campaign until the end of July 2019 and launched on September 1 – "just two months before the UK was expected to leave the EU… this left citizens and businesses with very little time to prepare," the report says.
The committee called on the Cabinet Office to offer "clear and specific assurance" within three months that business case analysis would drive its decision making and deliver better value for the taxpayer. Within a month, it should draw on a separate report from the National Audit Office to inform its own evaluation of the Brexit campaign. There should be broad agreement on the lessons learned, the PAC said. ®
Naysayers
Big Dom will see you right:
Big red bus.
Catchphrase.
Images of unicorns and rainbows.
Job done.
Next!
Re: Naysayers
As long as it's 3 words, it's golden.
Visit-your-inlaws
Visit-a-castle
retro-edit-blog
tell-more-lies
spin-more-bullshit
sack-the-capable
own-the-PM
Re: Naysayers
Visit-a-poledancer.
It's obvious....
In coronavirus, Boris has the perfect excuse to delay brexit. Cummings could quite easily spin that even to their most xenophobic followers.
With these huge mitigating circumastances, no member of the public would think of it as a broken promise (even though he's broken many)
But of course, the people behind brexit, the big donors, and the ERG don't give a crap about the chaos.. They just want to avoid the EU tax-loophole fixes, and want to strip workers of their rights (oh, and related, they want to abandon ECHR too)
In fact, some of them are planning on using brexit to short british companies, and make lots of money.. For them, the chaos will make them even richer! If you want to join them, read the "how to" books by Jacob Rees Moggs father. (obviously a coincidence (!))
And besides, many of them have already bought their own EU citizenship from Cyprus, so they're covered there too.
Re: It's obvious....
I can't imagine why Boris & Dom would want to delay. They, and their backers, are gagging for Brexit chaos because it'll provide cover for no end of "adjustments" to laws to suit themselves. Tweak to tax legislation here, little snip to employment rights there.. .. Just temporary, you understand, until everything is stable again. It's very important that millionaire investors are confident they can still make money, and equally important that workers work harder. Sacrifices have to be made for the good of the country.
However, you are right about Dom spinning it to their followers. If they'll buy "checking my eyesight", they'll buy any old bullshit.
Re: It's obvious....
The making money part may be adversely affected if the second Coronavirus spike means more workers are infected/ill/dying/dead.
Combined
The information campaigns will be combined. because COVID19 will provide the perfect cover for all Brexit related disasters.
Things going badly - blame COVID19 regardless.
Things not going badly - credit Brexit regardless.
Re: Combined
You can't have two sets of slogans at the same time. That just confuses people. They will have to combine them - e.g.
Plan for Covid
Plan for Brexit
Buy a coffin before the price goes up
And?
What I don't understand is why is anybody surprised.
Boris has always been a self-serving incompetent fool, not stupid but nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is and now he's so far out of his depth he needs a life-guard, which is why Cummings won't be sacked.
Not a very surprising conclusion given that they've proved themselves incapable of managing even one thing at a time.