.... When the Prime Minister gave his key Munich security conference speech on multiculturalism and counter-terrorism in 2011, he made several classic prime ministerial mistakes. Among them was one Margaret Thatcher could have warned him about.
For giving a speech is just giving a speech: it is not the same thing as forcing that speech to shape policy.
Shortly after Munich I heard a statement by a senior civil servant — one of the men at the very top of the British government’s security policy. When asked about the Prime Minister’s speech, this civil servant said, ‘The Munich speech is Cameron’s personal view, it is not policy.’
This is the view of much of the civil service. They work against the government’s counter-terrorism agenda, fail to implement it, implement it wrongly, or go after pet peeves of their own as a condition of doing the job they are supposed to do. [The Spectator] Read more
