Ex-Permanent Secretary Complains While Career Helping Mess Unfolds

KEY POINTS

•Sir Simon McDonald urged No 10 to undertake 'more due diligence' before appointing Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary.
•Labour mayor of Greater Manchester joined McDonald in criticizing Jim Ratcliffe’s comments on February 12, 2026.
•A government insider defended Antonia Romeo as a disruptor and attacked McDonald as a relic trapped in outdated culture.

Sir Simon McDonald, former Foreign Office permanent secretary (think office chair royalty), is waving red flags about No 10's plan to swap Chris Wormald with Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary. It’s February 12, 2026, and Simon’s fresh advice is 'do more due diligence,' which sounds awfully like 'we totally dropped the ball, pls be careful.' Meanwhile, Labour's Greater Manchester mayor proudly chips in alongside McDonald criticizing billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's comments, igniting a spicy government backlash. Steven Swinford of The Times blesses us by sharing a subtle diss from a mystery government source calling Simon a 'desperate senior male official' stuck in 'computer says no culture' while praising Antonia as a bold 'disrupter' battling the stiff British bureaucracy status quo. Drama-filled, everyone’s opinions are out and apparently career-long inertia meets woke rebellion on England’s bureaucratic battlefield.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

The guy whose life’s work was the government mess demands more checks while everyone else wonders if 'doing more due diligence' means anybody read the job description for once.

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