
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


As the political debate over Brexit grows ever more polarised in the UK exposing deep fractures within the political parties, questions are also being asked about the how the machinery of government is working. Lord Ricketts, a former top diplomat, and national security adviser has very publicly condemned the current government’s handling of Brexit negotiations describing them as a fiasco and expressing the fear that Brexit will leave Britain permanently and significantly weakened. This public airing of views has created the impression that the supposedly apolitical civil service, particularly the foreign office, is institutionally and temperamentally opposed to Brexit – a policy which was of course approved by a national referendum in 2016. Does this represent a real problem in Britain’s democracy and in the relationship between the people and the government?
By BBC World Service4.4
327327 ratings
As the political debate over Brexit grows ever more polarised in the UK exposing deep fractures within the political parties, questions are also being asked about the how the machinery of government is working. Lord Ricketts, a former top diplomat, and national security adviser has very publicly condemned the current government’s handling of Brexit negotiations describing them as a fiasco and expressing the fear that Brexit will leave Britain permanently and significantly weakened. This public airing of views has created the impression that the supposedly apolitical civil service, particularly the foreign office, is institutionally and temperamentally opposed to Brexit – a policy which was of course approved by a national referendum in 2016. Does this represent a real problem in Britain’s democracy and in the relationship between the people and the government?

7,709 Listeners

4,178 Listeners

523 Listeners

1,066 Listeners

1,000 Listeners

303 Listeners

5,472 Listeners

1,804 Listeners

971 Listeners

592 Listeners

1,774 Listeners

1,056 Listeners

2,079 Listeners

975 Listeners

738 Listeners

49 Listeners

850 Listeners

2,548 Listeners

3,221 Listeners

733 Listeners

1,038 Listeners

352 Listeners