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August 28, 2024 - 4:00pm
Minouche Shafik, the former Columbia University president who resigned earlier this month following criticism of her handling of pro-Palestine protests, is reportedly a contender to replace Simon Case as the head of the Civil Service.
According to ITV’s Robert Peston, the role — which is responsible for 500,000 civil servants — will be advertised formally and there is no suggestion that it will be an inside hire. The outgoing Case, who became the youngest senior civil servant in 100 years when he was appointed by Boris Johnson, has been forced to quit over a neurological condition which impedes his mobility.
Shafik, who was previously deputy governor of the Bank of England and vice president of the World Bank, came under intense scrutiny earlier this year after an appearance in front of the US House of Representatives’ education and workforce committee.
During the hearing, “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Anti-Semitism”, the then-president of the Ivy League university changed her testimony after telling Democratic representative Ilhan Omar that she was not aware of any anti-Jewish demonstrations on campus. Shafik also came under pressure for the institution’s failure to remove an academic who had allegedly referred to Hamas’s 7 October attacks approvingly as a “resistance offensive”.
Shafik’s resignation, which was announced only two weeks ago, followed those of Claudine Gay of Harvard University and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, who were both ousted over concerns around their inadequate response to campus antisemitism.
In her letter Shafik, a crossbench peer, mentioned that the new Labour ministry had asked her “to chair a review of the government’s approach to international development and how to improve capability”. She added: “It also enables me to return to the House of Lords to reengage with the important legislative agenda put forth by the new UK government.”
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SubscribeDidn’t globalist central casting have anyone else to put forward?
God help us all.
Any one who’s watched Shafik’s testimony or followed her actions and, in particular, inaction at Columbia, where she gave a free pass to antisemites, quietly overturned suspensions and allowed the hostility to Jews to incubate and grow will fear that she would allow the same cancer at the Civil Service. Long before Oct 7 and her appointment to Columbia the uni was a hot-bed of radical antisemitism clothed in the flag of pro-Palestinian support. She knew that when she took the gig, and did nothing until she was hauled before the House of Representatives Education committee. As such, her record there suggests she approved of the ideological capture of Columbia – until she was called to account. The other way to look at it is that this amounts to an impressive CV which makes her a perfect fit for either the Civil Service, the BBC or Ofcom, three organisations in which activist ideology is embedded and where impartiality has been abandoned.
Her behaviour in front of that committee really should have ended her career altogether. Yet here she is.
A ‘floater’. A t**d that, no matter how often you flush it, bobs back up to the surface.
Shafik and Robbins are failing up!
And these are the people who ‘run’ the country.
Heaven help us, because this shower are only in it for themselves.
Perfect.Like Civil Service, she decides nothing
Another Starmer decision that reveals his anti semitism; but then, he supported the Communist Party of GB for years while working full time for the Communist Lawyers Group – can’t remember the name but it is still in existence. When will the great British public turn on this evil man? He supported Corbyn with faithful dedication for years too. The man is a perfect quisling for the party that brought the world the Russian Revolution – Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and the millions ploughed under with the crops they grew; plus Mao, millions and millions more destroyed lives; and I could go on with all the other evil rulers who have promoted deep state socialism.
His wife is jewish.
That probably means you’ll flip your prejudice to something else. Pathetic.
And your point is what exactly ?
There are plenty of Jewish people in the UK who have anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli views. I don’t recall the Milbands – to take but one example – being pro-Israeli. Gerald Kaufman was another Jewish Labour MP who took a strongly anti-Israeil position. It’s actually fairly common.
Since you have your own prejudices (that’s ok by the way – we all do – better to be open about it) about private schools and class, you might care to remember that Starmer’s wife went to a private school. I don’t much care (and probably her parents’ decision and not her choice). But you seem to.
A set of possibles to create great dismay. Olly Robbins should be Starmer’s choice – 2 dedicated EUphiles together. One is surprised that other candidates such as Paula Vennels or Alison Rose are not in the frame.
Makes me sick
This reads like a footnote to yesterday’s ‘Kemi Says the Quiet Parts Out Loud’. The grim reality of recent British politics is clear enough:
1) Yes the Tory Party is bereft of both talent (and conservatives)….But (and its a big But)
2) even if the Party was led by lions, the Civil Service is dreadful, bloated, lazy, sinecured and stuffed to the brim with thick, group-thinking university sheep-dipped Lefties.
3) which is also why talented conservative-minded people generally steer well clear of it.
The current UK political landscape is (to coin a phrase) “hopeless but not serious” Even a decent head of the Civil Service couldn’t change that….and certainly not this candidate. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/carry-on-governing
Great substack. Trouble is that people who live off the state are always going to want more of it until the sheer weight of it crushes the productive economy altogether. I fear that, having elected a Labour government, we are facing the same fate as France, where it really is now too late.
13 million Brits go to France each year for a holiday. Falling part isn’t it.
The French have been consuming more than they produce for fifty years. Without us and the Germans it would have been over years ago.
Forget the holidays JW. I lived there for 2 years in the mid 1990s. Industrial relations there were like the UK in the 1970s. And nothing has changed since then. You can almost schedule the strikes in the calendar.
And people who claim that the UK has a class system problem and lack of social mobility have never lived in France.
But yes, it’s a great place to holiday. And live. Provided you’re already rich or a French civil servant.
70% of senior Civil servants and Judges from elite Private schools. Govt’s own data. Now granted sometimes a Private school alumni becomes left leaning, but they’ll have come from a certain class won’t they.
Nowadays ‘left’ just means statist. Look at the way Starmer has treated working class people, not just as PM, but also when he was DPP.
Like bringing to an end the abuse of zero hours contracts? Or do you mean how he’s ensured criminals and drunken yobs are treated after attacking the Police and other innocents?
God help us.
Wasting your time there JS
Labour seem to think that winning an election with 20% of the vote gives them some kind of carte blanche to turn the country into Lebanon. I think a rude awakening is coming.
In this household we predict Winter of Discontent followed by Summer of Civil Unrest. Situation is unravelling very fast. Reeves has the political acumen of a red squirrel, Starmer has had a leadership bypass and has a very thin skin, West Streeting has turned into Frank Field (been sacked for thinking the unthinkable) and Miliband is running the National Blackout Programme. I wouldn’t mind, but it’s all being done in the name of growth?!!!
Unfortunately Starmer’s approach to the riots has brought them to a rapid cessation. Public will remember that. And remember too even The Sun published a front page asking public to help identify rioters. You may not represent quite where the Country is SG.
That said it will be a very difficult year given the inheritance. And given what is now being uncovered the difficulties would have been even greater had the Right maintained power. At least hospital appts won’t be repeatedly cancelled due to strikes and the trains will run so folks can get to work.
The riots would have fizzled out anyway, little to do with Starmer.
This government won’t end with an election. This one’s going to be bloody. Luckily, 62,000,000 versus The Cabinet seems to be a walkover for the British public against a totally unwanted dictator.
A mindset designed to destroy Britain was slowly hard-wired by Moscow into the DNA of the British left wing between 1920 and 1980.
They’re following the same script, even though most are probably unaware of the origins of what’s driving their decisions.
That’s why the unreconstructed Left are always disastrous for Britain. It’s in their genes.
Starmer may be far more of a Trotskyist than people realise. Consequently he will use the power of a large majority.
There is a large part of the left wing middle class are rancid with resentment and full of spite towards those who have the qualities which create and maintain civilisation- vitality, toughness, imagination, initiative ingenuity and innovation.
Civilisation started when humans learnt to breed wheat, plant and harvest it, manage water and build towns. It is difficult to think of any middle class left winger who would be the slightest use if people founded themselves stranded on some island, say from a plane crash ort shipwreck.
Starmer et al are possessed by resentment and only feel spite towards Western civilisation.
What a load of ‘woe is me’ tosh. You read too many comic books CH. But also you have this Nietzschean outlook – the Superman theory. You’re such a Hunter Gatherer there on your keyboard. Typical Right wing macho masculinity rubbish.
Typical Right wing macho masculinity rubbish.
Not so sure, I think ‘rancid with resentment’ about sums it up. It’s astonishing how the more the middle class gets something for nothing, the more whiny and over-entitled you all become.
Compare Keir Starmer with Keir Hardie . Hardie said Samuel Smiles ” Self Help ” was a manual of Socialism. Smiles wrote ” The Lives of the Engineers ” and biography of Wedgewood” trumpeting how ordinary people through hard work and innovation produced the Industrial Revolution. J Bronowski said Britain’s Industrial Revolution was our Enlightenment.
Compare E Bevin with David Lammy and D Healey with A Rayner. E Bevin said of public school boys ” They did all right in the Battle of Britain “.
Where is the present day Labour Party trumpeting the likes of G Stephenson? J Brindley and G Stephenson did far more to improve the quality of lives of the poor than any present day Labour politician.
So respect for those through their innovation and hardwork improves the quality of lives of poorer people is “Right wing macho masculinity rubbish” then you disagree with the comment ” A labourer is worth his salt ?”.
A British navvy had to excavate 20T of soil a day, including winter and could move 440Lb in one wheel barrow. When British navvies constructed canals in France, the French were amazed at their strength. The death rate in mines and on trawlers was very high in particular and construction, docks, shipyards and steel works also had large number of deaths.
If it had not been for J Brindley reducing the price of coal by about 75%, the scarcity of wood would have meant many of the poor would have faced hunger and cold.
div > p:nth-of-type(7) > a”>James Brindley – Wikipedia
Please remind me of the present day Labour/Democrat politician who has undertaken the fundemental work which creates and maintains civilisation? K Hardie was a miner, E Bevin a docker and D Healey a Beachmaster at Anzio.
Compare Keir Starmer with Keir Hardie . Hardie said Samuel Smiles ” Self Help ” was a manual of Socialism. Smiles wrote ” The Lives of the Engineers ” and biography of Wedgewood” trumpeting how ordinary people through hard work and innovation produced the Industrial Revolution. J Bronowski said Britain’s Industrial Revolution was our Enlightenment.
Compare E Bevin with David Lammy and D Healey with A Rayner. E Bevin said of public school boys ” They did all right in the Battle of Britain “.
Where is the present day Labour Party trumpeting the likes of G Stephenson? J Brindley and G Stephenson did far more to improve the quality of lives of the poor than any present day Labour politician.
So respect for those through their innovation and hardwork improves the quality of lives of poorer people is “Right wing macho masculinity rubbish” then you disagree with the comment ” A labourer is worth his salt ?”.
A British navvy had to excavate 20T of soil a day, including winter and could move 440Lb in one wheel barrow. When British navvies constructed canals in France, the French were amazed at their strength. The death rate in mines and on trawlers was very high in particular and construction, docks, shipyards and steel works also had large number of deaths.
If it had not been for J Brindley reducing the price of coal by about 75%, the scarcity of wood wood would have meant meant many of the poor would have faced hunger and cold.
div > p:nth-of-type(7) > a”>James Brindley – Wikipedia
Please remind me of the Labour/Democrat politician who has undertaken the fundamental work which creates and maintains civilisation?
With the exception of Tony Blair’s administration, all Labour governments get booted out by the voters after one term, more or less. And Blair came to power in a particular benign period and was a very talented politician. BY comparison, Starmer is clearly a dud and the 2024 political and economic situation is very bad. I think 2TK’s Labour government will revert to the historical trend.
By 2029 we’ll very likely have PR and votes for 16 year olds. Indeed, there may well be a “crisis” that causes the Government to introduce emergency legislation delaying an election indefinitely.
This could get very, very bad.
And Blair came to power in a particular benign period and was a very talented politician.
Unfortunately ‘talented’ has become a euphemism for ‘ narcissistic and totally unprincipled’.
Minouche is a name for a cat.
So is Larry, but it hasn’t helped him either.
Do you dance, Minouche, do you dance?
(with apologies to W. B. Yeats)
Labour is as Labour was. Jobs for academics and the loony left. Put a working class civil servant in to the position. The hardest thing about a job is getting it. Any old fool could lead the civil service.
The Olly Robbins point is intriguing – was he really out of kilter with the Brexiteers during the negotiations?
The point often forgotten is many Brexiteers, Farage and Hannan included, said we’d remain largely within Single Market and Customs Union and the EU would buckle and acquiesce to us maintaining most of the benefits. Thus fact he was allegedly trying to find a position that maintained much of that, rather than a Hard Brexit, just showed he was possibly more aligned with the promises than the Brexiteers themselves.
Of course it didn’t happen for other reasons, but as Brexiteers howl now about a move back towards greater alignment they forget they were promulgating that themselves during the referendum campaign. They just subsequently got carried away.
You should stop whining about Brexit. It’s over.
Unherd does not believe in free speech. My comment was censored even though the facts I cited about Starmer, Russia and China, were all verifiable.
Look up the meaning of Free Speech.
And another Starmer decision that reveals his anti semitism; Minouche Shafik, the former Columbia University president who resigned earlier this month following criticism of her handling of pro-Palestine protests, (she thought them a good idea folks) is reportedly a contender to replace Simon Case as the head of the Civil Service. But then, Comrade Starmer supported the Communist Party of GB for years while working full time for the Communist Lawyers Group – The Haldane Society. When will the great British public turn on this evil man? He supported Corbyn with faithful dedication for years too. The man is a perfect quisling for the party that brought the world the Russian Revolution – Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and the millions ploughed under with the crops they grew; plus Mao, millions and millions more destroyed lives; and I could go on with all the other evil rulers who have promoted deep state socialism.