Rev dear Rev: Given the desertion of ministers and aides from the Boris camp at the moment, and especially given the impression this creates like rats from a holed Titanic, is the recent philosophy of the civil service - “We shall work from home for ever” - a suitable or ethical philosophy to hold for a correct civil service?

Actually, in 1912, it was widely believed that even if the Titanic was holed that it would survive a sinking threat even with 1 or 2 compartments flooded, so it is possible for some ships to sail on despite a jolly good holing nor once but twice, not twice but thrice - such are the times in which we live, such are the men who seek your face O Lord, we might say as Christian hoi poloi Realists pondering on the vicissitudes of government among conservatives, all Oxbridge educated and all ambitious enough to desire the top banana appointment. The Titanic could have survived if the decisive 4th compartment had not been punctured by those implacable icebergs. Much like some poor prime minister soldiering on because he knows that the central issues to come round the corner will not be how many glasses of Prosecco the boys and girls were having in the garden with a Carrie, but whether a prime minister strong enough to stand up to the Russians would arrive on the scene. Boris is Russian himself, he knows the Russians inside out. He might be the Titanic described above, the one that can survive a few holings.

Fair enough, while lots of foreigners enjoy the videos of “Yes, Minister” and these are well popular even in Roman circles of governance, it is nowadays estimated by the newspapers decamped around Downing Street like troops at Austerlitz that more than 600 civil servants in Whtiehall 3121 are earning salaries of more than £150,000 per annum, though wags have been quick to point out that per annum means throughout the year not just at Christmastime. Most civil servants do a fine job and work very hard for their pin money and these including some teachers were granted a WFH option during those awful years of the Cv-19 epidemic, and these have since said, "We shall work from home for ever”, but it is always and often difficult to close the stable door once the horse has bolted. Linkedin has carried lots of articles for 2 years now on how bosses might try hard to get office workers back into work. So the problem is a pressing problem. Even the superlative civil service of the GB Foreign Office and such like are feeling the pressure.