Remember when the Duchess of Sussex, an American woman, said words about how Americans should vote in our 2020 election, and members of the British press and British public lost their friggin’ minds about HOW DARE SHE GET POLITICAL? Good times. The Windsor clan is of course very political – the Queen has let her feelings be known on Scottish independence, Brexit and fascism. Charles has been political constantly over the years. And there’s a revolving door between political aides in Downing Street and the various palaces – many political aides like to retire from political work so they can have a cushy job on some palace office staff. So it is with Simon Case, who was the equivalent of chief of staff in Prince William’s Kensington Palace office. Case has been lured back to political work by Boris Johnson.
A former aide to Prince William will today be appointed as Britain’s top civil servant. Whitehall sources last night confirmed that Boris Johnson has picked Simon Case to be the UK’s new Cabinet Secretary. He will replace Sir Mark Sedwill, who announced he was quitting in June after losing a power struggle with the Prime Minister’s chief aide Dominic Cummings.
Mr Case, 41, will become the youngest Cabinet Secretary in modern times. He will now be expected to help drive through the radical civil service reform demanded by Mr Cummings, who has warned a ‘hard rain is coming’ to Whitehall. But allies dismissed the idea his relative inexperience would make him a pushover for the chief aide. ‘He’s a problem solver who gets things done,’ said one. ‘He has impressed everyone since he came back.’
Mr Case previously served as private secretary to both David Cameron and Theresa May in No 10. He then appeared to have left the civil service fast track in 2018 after being poached by the royal household to become private secretary to Prince William.
Boris Johnson’s new top civil servant was hired from Kensington Palace, where he is credited with boosting William and Kate’s public image. Now Simon Case has to try to do the same for the Government, which has been rocked by a string of U-turns since the onset of the coronavius crisis. His appointment was a surprise as it had been thought he wanted to return to his royal duties as the Duke of Cambridge’s private secretary. During this period he modernised the prince’s operations and helped boost his and his wife’s standing after Harry and Meghan decided to depart for the US.
Prince William is losing the right-hand man credited with helping him ‘step up’ as a future international statesman. Simon Case was brought into Kensington Palace as the second in line to the throne’s private secretary – his most senior member of staff – almost two years ago. Mr Case was intimately involved in successful high profile official tours to Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Pakistan, Kuwait and Oman, all of which were seen to have given the future king more gravitas on the international stage. Mr Case was also party to this year’s ‘Megxit’ negotiations between the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry.
It had been suggested that Mr Case’s move to Downing Street was a temporary one and that he was keen to return to royal service, with the assumption being that he would help guide William in the next stage of his royal career. But sources made clear last night that he had built a strong team around him and if anything his move to Government would help ensure William’s full potential was better utilised, particularly given the challenges currently facing the country. William’s current communications secretary, Christian Jones, is standing in for Mr Case and will be considered a strong contender for the permanent role. Sources said Mr Jones – who has been behind William’s well-received handling of the coronavirus crisis – will remain acting private secretary for the ‘foreseeable future’.
“Sources said Mr Jones – who has been behind William’s well-received handling of the coronavirus crisis…”??? Oh my God. William “joked” in Ireland about the coronavirus in a famously insensitive off-the-cuff moment, then he and Kate refused to social distance while meeting first responders, and even now, they barely wear masks when they should. But that’s not the point of this story! The point of this story is that of course royals are political and of course they have political people working for them. There has always been a revolving door between the palaces and Tory governments (and even a few Labour governments). The a–holes who were mad about Meghan talking about voting were mad because she’s not an empty suit ripe for Tory political indoctrination.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.
I don’t think this is the first time he’s worked for Boris either. Boris and William are sharing him. Not apolitical or dangerous at all 🙃 don’t want to hear a peep about Meghan being political again.
Or Meghan unable to keep staffers working for her….
The hypocrisy is astounding. And can the tabloids ever write an article without somehow dragging Harry and Meghan into it? There was no need to mention them at all.
Am I supposed to pretend that all of this was not intentional? That he was not recruited in 2018 for one purpose and one purpose only? That after successfully concluding the aim of his contract in January 2020, he later returned to his post and with a promotion to boot? Hopefully it was all worth it, William!
yes Myra, I have been saying this all along. Simon Case started working with William in 2018 around the time of the Sussexes marriage and left shortly after their departure. His mission was accomplished and now he is being rewarded for his service to queen and country.
It’s so convenient too that they’re trying to convince people that he really wanted to go back to work for William. Really? To do what? I love how the media frames his time at KP – helped William through his estrangement with his brother. I suppose that’s double speak for ‘stab your brother in the back’.
Yup, he’s the reason for the plane stunt.
INteresting! I didn’t connect those dots until you pointed it out.
Yeah, of course the royals are political. They’ve always been political. Just because they don’t actively campaign for one politician or another doesn’t mean they aren’t political.
It will be interesting to see if/how things change at KP with Case leaving, at least its clear now where the narrative about William as the future statesman was coming from.
The Spectator (a magazine with a strong Tory slant) has said that Case was the one who orchestrated that FlyBe plane stunt
The Spectator definitely has a Tory slant but they love to serve and spill the tea or everyone. The Spectator is in no way deferential to the Tories or another other political party.
The Spectator is definitely not deferential to the Windsors especially the future Charles III.
Spectator doesn’t have a Tory ‘slant’ is full-fledged fascism and racism spread across their pages. It’s the upper-class version of the Daily Mail and political version of Tatler.
Case didn’t seem to want this job (he apparently never really applied for it) but it seems to have been thrust upon him. And as for Christian Jones, his boyfriend leaks the plans of two senior royals to Dan Wooton and what does he get? A promotion to the top job to a royal.
And like we’ve been saying here for months now, that just shows that the leaks were completely sanctioned – either that or Jones has other dirt on the Cambridges that makes firing him impossible.
(honestly it could have been an easy win for the Cambridges – fire Jones for leaking to Wootton, even indirectly, and then quietly hook Jones up with a cushy government job. That way the Cs look like they are taking action, while keeping Jones happy.)
I agree. Giving a guy a promotion when his boyfriend has a money trail leading to him leaking to Wootton just doesn’t sit right. Even if William had nothing to do with it, promoting the guy who’s boyfriend leaked your brother’s plans (and possibly jeopardised his privacy/security) is a shitty move
Exactly right, Becks – it would have been such an easy, effortless move that would have netted the Cambridges a ton of positive PR and allowed them to keep up the facade. ‘No, of course they weren’t involved in these leaks, but as soon as they found out they immediately fired the responsible party. How just! How noble! See, they weren’t trying to drive the Sussexes away, they were all betrayed! Isn’t Will such a hero?!?!’
The fact that they’ve deliberately avoided it, and instead are publicly floating the idea of giving him a promotion, means there are only two possibilities:
(1) team Cambridge has decided that overtly displaying an obvious alignment with the tories while simultaneously (if indirectly) taking credit for driving the Black American out of the country is advantageous to them. They are actively choosing to align themselves with racist, Meghan-hating (and general immigrant/POC hating) fans and politicians alike, because they think this makes them look good. Similar to GOP members in the US, they had the chance to stand up and do the right, moral thing, and declined, because they are the bad guys and appealing to their most rabid, racist fans is a plus for them.
Or, (2), the Cambridges are being blackmailed by Jones and are doing whatever they must to save face, regardless of who gets thrown under the bus.
Regardless if it’s the former or the latter, or some combination thereof, these clear decisions show plainly the character of the people involved. Even if they’re being blackmailed, choosing to throw your own brother and his family to the dogs to save yourself just makes you a coward as well as an idiot; if he thinks that Jones will be satisfied with a promotion and it’ll be enough to keep his secrets forever, then the inevitable fallout from this will be that much sweeter.
There is also a revolving door between Westminster/Downing street and the British Press. If Simon Case has dirt on PWT then PWT will never sleep soundly through the night ever again.
@Sofia Unfortunately it’s not a shitty move if you planned it. It’s exactly what they were looking for…
Clearly the Cambridges sanctioned the leaks to the media. Christian Jones would have been fired otherwise.
Someone on Twitter posted a comment but from an unnamed government official ripping Case apart as incompetent so this will be fun. Besides the Tories won’t be in office forever so they better enjoy this while they can n
Also WTF is with Dominic Cummings controlling all this government movement? If he Boris’s chief of staff? This is bizarre for an unelected person to have this much power.
I hope all the plotting and scheming Willy has done throughout his life is worth it in the end, because my god, this man is an actual sociopath. Case did what was needed to be done and that was to drive the Sussexes out. Well done, KP! This is your legacy! Now the monarchy is all yours for the taking! *strenuous eye roll*
Thing is, the monarchy was always theirs for the taking. William and Kate were always going to be King and Queen. The line of succession is set, it’s not a popularity contest. But the problem was always popularity. The Cambridges didn’t want to share the stage and wanted to stay as the “popular” young royals.
EXACTLY. Their place was always secure as future future king and queen. But that wasn’t enough for them, they had to be the most popular too, and the ironic thing is that in their quest to be the most popular, they drove out the Sussexes and now they can do nothing to contain their popularity as it rises on an international level.
@Becks: Their kids will eventually take over as the “young” royals anyways. George is 5 years away from being a teenager hence the tabloid press will shift their focus onto him. It’s not a Cambridge specific thing – it happens to all the royals. So really the Cambridges have the “spotlight” for 5-10 years and that’s it
Sometimes I wonder if Kate would still want the job as Queen Consort if she became desperately unpopular. At what point, after birthing the heirs and putting on her sham loyal show of pigeon love for Wandering Willy, will she be done with it all, ala Harry & Megs, if the press ever really turned on her. She has shown precedent to disappear when the going gets tough (Turnip Toff story breaking). When the Queen is gone, and no one cares about King Charles and Will has a massive breakdown and threatens to abdicate, will Kate ever get to a point where she sees how silly the whole show is?
@Harper – Hmmm.
I think in general, Kate will never be the kind of consort that Prince Phillip is/was (in past tense since he is retired.) We aren’t going to see her logging those kinds of numbers, ever. We don’t see it now, we wont see it when she is Princess of Wales, and we wont see it when she is queen.
I think she WILL like being Queen consort though because she can do more of the ceremonial and glamourous stuff that she seems to like – diplomatic receptions, state dinners, various BP events – stuff where she can dress up in a cocktail or evening dress, wear a huge tiara for some of the events (since she’ll get to pick whichever one she wants) – I think that’s the part of it she’ll like, and that’s the part that she wants.
Finally though, I think something she overlooks is that a lot of her “sins” (not working, overpriced wardrobe, etc) are overlooked because she is younger, has cute kids, good hair – basically she’s the kind of “glamourous” that the press has decided is acceptable for a married-in royal. But those things are going to fade with time – and there’s not really a whole else about her that makes her interesting. Now, she doesn’t have to be interesting to be Queen consort. But she DOES have to be interesting to sell papers and generate clicks, and if her type of “glamour” isn’t selling those papers, the press will find something else that will (ahem affair ahem) and I don’t think she fully grasps that.
@Becks1 I think she also doesn’t grasp that if she can’t generate clicks, then once she is Queen consort (which I still think is a big “if”), the press will rip apart her children’s lives.
I just don’t understand why he feels the need to plot. The crown will land in his lap eventually (unless the monarchy is abolished) without him doing anything at all.
It can only be pure ego.
Not to nitpick, but civil servants are supposee to be apolitical (not that they dont have personal political opinions or vote or whatever), but they have to not give public voice those. If a labour government was to come into power most of the civil servants would stay as they just serve the government of the day, they dont work for the political party.
This is true but in this case he is personally picked by Boris Johnson, therefore he is political.
Yes but that’s normal enough, the point is it’s a great job, and as another poster pointed out- jobs in the civil service are fairly prized so are considered as jobs for life!
It is most definitely a – tory – political appointment. They had an actually qualified person to take the position and replaced him with a tory sycophant with no experience
So this is true in the US as well, believe it or not (meaning even in the Trump administration its still apolitical lol.) I know, I’m a civil servant here – its why things like the Hatch Act used to be such a big deal (people in the federal service have to follow strict rules regarding campaigning, fundraising, etc. The trump administration itself doesn’t follow it, but the rest of us still have to…..)
But, that doesn’t mean that every single appointment in the civil service is not political. Here, we have Boris Johnson naming someone who reportedly did not even apply, along with this quote:
“He will now be expected to help drive through the radical civil service reform demanded by Mr Cummings” – that doesn’t sound apolitical to me.
So there’s always a fine line between what one is “supposed” to be and what one actually is in these types of situations. (again supposedly the Queen is apolitical, but we all know that isn’t true.)
I think Case is bailing from KP because of Sussexit, William’s Rose pruning and Andrew’s mess, etc. He probably knows where the bodies are buried are he doesn’t want to be on the royal payroll when they eventually surface. Working for the government may provide him more cover
@aquarius64 – Agree with you 100%. I also think Case sees the Cambridge as a lost cause because Kain & Kant Keen are not willing to put in the work needed to achieve the results they want.
The civil service is completely apolitical. If you live in the U.K., you’ll know a lot of people regard it as a job for life as most people stay there throughout their career. This obviously means working for governments that don’t align with your political affiliation.
Civil service used to be considered completely apolitical in the US. And we all know what has happened to that since Trump came to power.
There were a whole lot of Brits on twitter commenting that the appointment of Case to this position was very political, and that he is being sent in with an agenda to complete.
Yes but that’s the point of a civil servant? To enact the minister’s agenda. If Starmer, hopefully, becomes PM, Case will have to enforce his agenda too.
Cummings is an unelected political staff member so if he’s directing Case then already they muddied the waters. No one elected Cummings and therefore he’s not held accountable.
Case will likely be gone once Brexit consequences make everything a mess and the Labour Party gets in. They won’t want a Tory lackey in the position, hence the position is political.
In Canada the equivalent is Clerk of the Privy Council, and their appointments are political, as the person changes when the government changes party. This is not a position where someone works there for 30 years and collects a pension.
Smiley, you can read “ABritGuest’s” comment further below in addition to what Nic919 said. Their comments describe exactly those of the Brits I referenced.
Royals are political the only issue is when their politics doesn’t line up with their right wing press masters. I remember some getting mad when William did a speech about importance of working with other nations before the Brexit vote that some thought was pro Europe& some left leaning papers were enthusiastic about thinking it was an endorsement for remain.
Simon Case is a very political appointment& he’s there to do Dominic Cumming’s bidding& overhaul& politicise the civil service which is meant to be apolitical.
Simon Case was totally a source for that Tim Shipman ‘send them to Africa’ article. always thought so because of his time working on Brexit and Shipman is very cosy with leading Brexiters. Plus Camilla Tominey hinted he was a gossip.
sorting out issues with the brother (ie getting Harry out the way) and helping the Cambridges with successful PR (bad press for the Sussexes, propping up his bosses) was part of his remit and he executed it well. That line from the Times article about William being reassured about how Harry’s popularity will fade was probably about Simon manipulating William’s insecurities. Christian Jones got a promotion even though likely his partner was leaking to the Sun. Again another one doing his duties well.
Seems the real right wing section of the Conservative party and the press have a strong hold on the future king. This will be interesting.
I was thinking the same thing. The government and the media dog walk the Cambridges. BM is using William to try to control Harry. And it has to Gaul W and K the Sussexes have their own property in CA while they live on the taxpayer’s dime therefore more be holding.
It is interesting that the article Camilla Tominey wrote in June for the Spectator has been edited. In the original article it went into greater detail about the plane stunt and even called Simon out on it. It also went into greater detail about him being a gossip and how it caused friction at KP. It is now about how he brought organization to the chaos of KP, raised the profile of William and Kate and made William look more statesmanlike. The original article was not so flattering. It gave the impression that KP was little league and backstabbing. Now Simon and William and Kate are looking like “great leaders” and ready for the big time. Simon Case was NEVER going back. He had made the environment at KP toxic, but if this was the story William and Kate would look bad. Especially since they have both lost their top people after only two years on the job. Articles are even saying Boris owes William. So much for being non political.
If that’s how he led the Cambridge’s staff, imagine what he’ll do in Boris’ office…..
Interesting I want to see the original article now I wish I’d saved as PDF which is what I normally do scandalous short lived articles like this just incase KP gets a hold of it, but I just read the snippets.
Is anyone really surprised by this
nope. waiting for him to be knighted next.
This would have made such a brilliant episode of ‘The Thick Of It’…
William is falling for President… (cough, cough) prime-minister Boris Johnson‘s trap. I stick to my theory that Boris is the figurehead of the (far)right wing establishment to take the monarchy down after QEII has passed. He already threw her under the bus in 2019.
William (Cain) collaborated with the Tories by appointing Simon Case in 2018 to smear the Sussexes for 2 years in exchange for positive Cambridge PR. He effectively chased the progressive Sussexes out of the country.
Now with Boris’ help William (Judas) will seek to overthrow his father Charles or push to shorten his reign and take over the throne prematurely.
William thinks Boris is his friend, but Boris wants Simon Case back not only to control the civil service but to help him take down Weak William eventually. Simon knows all Will’s secrets as his former private secretary. William trusts people in his close circle too much. Tony Blair mentioned William in his book in 2010 and shared his confidential information that cost Blair an invitation to William’s wedding in 2011.
I hope William understands what’s at stake. By turning against his family William is doing the dirty work for future President Boris. Boris is already working on changing the constitution. I see a British republic coming soon.
Interesting.
What did Blair say about Will?
@2cents I agree that there’s something up and I think William is playing with fire openly cosying up to anyone involved with Dominic Cumming’s project. He’s looking to overhaul the major British institutions and I wouldn’t be surprised if that includes the monarchy.
Maybe Boris doesn’t want to ‘over throw’ William, but weaken his power by making him their little bitch. Once the queen and Charles are out of the way, they can do whatever they want with Willie.
I think it’s no coincidence that KP alienated Willie and Kate’s fanbase to just racists and baby boomers. They could see the left wing/liberal/millennial/youth fanbase were turning on them because of their treatment against harry and Meghan, and yet still continued with the campaign as normal. Now Willie and Kate now have to pander to those right wingers as they are their only supporters left.
Wow, that really is some revisionist writing. William preparing to be a statesman? Where? His handling of the coronavirus crises.Was this after those dismissive jokes. Seriously!? This Case guy was part of the scam of selling Brexit, his job was to get rid of Harry and Meghan, and who knows what damage he will help facilitate back in government. As for Christian Jones, this is the guy whose boyfriend was being bribed by greasy Dan Wooten for leaks from KP. This whole thing reeks so much. Willian is straight out broadcasting his political allegiances at this point. So much for being politically neutral.
@LOWRIDER it is alleged that its because because Blair shared private conversation they had when he met him years after his mother’s death. The funny thing is they had no problem inviting shady people like Bahrain prince who was accused of human rights abuses but a prince’s ego was a read line!! Neither Blair nor his Labour successor Gordon Brown was invited to the wedding. William has always been a Tory/right wing media oligarchs lover! Google the pictures of him hanging out with rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere and David Cameron. The idiot has given them too much power over him but he doesnt yet realise this.