POLITICS: Conspiracy vs cock up

To say Government mistakes are more often due to cock up than conspiracy is to use a hackneyed phrase that normally holds true. However, Labour’s absence from the political field has encouraged early coordination between the Government’s opponents in the Lords and some senior Civil Servants. The new administration has an incentive to be provocative (being forced to go to the country for a mandate has some appeal) and some mandarins seem to have risen to the bait – flashing details of the grammar schools policy to Downing Street snappers was a strangely na?ve thing for a senior Civil Servant to do, for instance.