The Permanent Secretary at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Jonathan Brearley, can barely contain his excitement at the arrival of Miatta Fahnbulleh to the department, or his admiration for Ed Miliband. What are the impartiality requirements again?
In a Linkedin post Brearley, who used to be CEO of Ofgem until recently, gushed about the incoming and outgoing ministers:
“I would like to say a very warm welcome to our new Secretary of State Miatta Fahnbulleh , who I’m delighted is returning to DESNZ to lead our nationally important agenda.
Miatta’s portfolio will see her tackling some of the biggest challenges this country faces, from guaranteeing our energy security to electrifying our economy, keeping energy bills down and maintaining progress on climate change.
The work we do in the months and years ahead will be crucial for building a stronger, more economically vibrant and self-reliant Britain. Showing leadership on a global scale by tackling the climate crisis, while empowering people in every region of this country to participate in the clean energy transition.
And, of course, I want to thank Ed Miliband for his two years of service as Energy Secretary. He came in with a clear plan and worked flat out to implement it, and the achievements speak for themselves – from kicking off the country’s biggest programme of new nuclear in fifty years to consenting enough clean energy projects to power the equivalent of 23 million homes. He has been an inspiration to many of us who work here.
Joining DESNZ means taking on this huge, once in a generation task and I look forward to supporting Miatta Fahnbulleh to do so.”
From the Civil Service Code on social media use: “We must take care about commenting on government policies and practices and should not do so without the proper authorisation. We should avoid commenting altogether on politically controversial issues.” Fans of markets and/or capitalism are concerned about the elevation of Fahnbulleh, who has supported various mad policies including getting to net zero by 2034. Is it any surprise that the supposedly ‘impartial’ civil servants are fully bought into the politics?
