2026-04-17 11:09 UTC
@rhys@mastodon.rhys.wtf it's bewildering. Somebody did something incredibly stupid for no obvious reason, even *aside* from the way anyone could have told them that Mandelson was a massive liability
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@rhys@mastodon.rhys.wtf 2026-04-17 11:24
@shimminbeg@masto.ai I've been trying to work out any plausible explanation. I held DV in the past and have numerous anecdotes about peers failing to get their clearance, but I had no idea FCDO had the power to overrule UKSV and grant it anyway. And that a non-political civil servant could do that without consulting a political role seems absurd to me. It is standard that thirty parties (not the subject or sponsor) only get the outcome, not the detail, but even so I find this baffling.