Candidates for more everyday roles within the civil service are given a bulging in-tray filled with documents of varying importance, and not enough time to clear it.
In the past oppositions have been given varying lengths of time to talk up their plans with civil servants - most recently from the January before the fourth anniversary of the last election.
As my husband noted on the OEM Facebook page, the downed wires happen time and time again (to varying degrees) when there is a major (or not-so-major) storm.
Turn back to the Dubai port story which, while it has been superseded by other insomnia-inducing threats, was a major scandal at the time and consider the varying perspectives behind the responses.