The Cambridge Geek

The Ministry of Leave

I decided to drift out into non-fiction for once, and it seems to have worked rather well. I tend to stick to the comedy and drama categories of BBC Radio, but there's really quite a lot of proper journalism on their Documentaries page.

This week, it's an interesting insight by Ben Wright to the "Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU)", pronounced "decks you". As in the sentence "the govenment's mad determination to fling itself into the sea over Brexit really DExEU". (Yes, my bias is showing.)

The new department, set up in order to work out what the devil we're doing, run by "Brexit Bulldog" David Davis, is an attempt to co-ordinate and manage the plans of each independent section of the Civil Service.

This show gives a very brief insight into the workings of the department, and what problems they're likely to be facing, while giving us a bit of the internal conflict. The most unexpected addition (at least to me) was a couple of short pieces from Damian Green, who I thought had been a bit banished after the porn debacle, but there you go. He's the closest we get to current policy, in that unfortunatly the Civil Service, being designed as a quiet entity that doesn't talk to the press, don't give us any secrets.

Does contain a few other interesting notes from various people involved in the process, as well as some nice incidental background music from the Civil Service choir.

Very obvious tone to the piece, in that I don't think anybody sounded terribly excited that Brexit was happening. The negotiations were frequently compared to being on a war footing, and there were more than a fair few rumblings about certain departments (looking at you, Treasury) being a bit reluctant. Makes you wonder what they know, really.

And, of course, no Brexit show is complete without substitute Voldemort, Ress-Mogg, who must have some absolutely mad scheme hidden away. A less silly Alexander Johnson. Terrible idea.

It will depress you. It's probably worth listening to.

Recommended.

Tagged: Radio Documentary Interviews Informative News/Political