Ms Gray, having experienced at first hand the tories behaviour during partygate, has gone for 'the cleaner alternative'.

Jacob Rees-Mogg calls Sue Gray ‘conniving friend of the socialists’

This is becoming immensely enjoyable....

What your post, and indeed the whole premise of the thread, fails to recognise is also some of the amazing talent within the CS. For example, clearly todays Anglo/French summit was a major success after the disaster years of Johnson and Truss. Who does all the behind the scenes leg work in making such events a success -highly skilled Civil Servants. Indeed, if you look at the photos from earlier you will see the British Ambassador to France right alongside Sunak as a central player and also Tim Barrow - the man who apparently brokered the recent deal associated with the protocol and a civil servant of vast experience/expertise.

So, to characterise the whole of the CS as "a farce" is clearly so far off the mark as to be absurd. It might also be worth remembering that it was Simon McDonnell who Boris Johnson got rid of after years in the FCO, who actually called him out for his claims of being unaware of the history of Chris Pincher which ultimately led to his downfall. McDonnell confirmed that he had personally briefed Johnson in full.

Another similar example was the decision of Liz Truss to dispense with the senior official in the Treasury - Tom Scholar - who she saw as a blocker to her views; look how well that turned out!

Of course, as in any organisation, the CS can be improved. However, it is worth remembering that it is universally admired world wide and it depends a lot on good political leadership - sadly lacking in the UK for at least a decade.

One final point; the UK press was forever going on about the size of the EU's bureaucracy. In fact, the Commission is about the size of the UK Home Office - not the vast bureaucracy that is claimed.