As Yes Minister used to articulate beautifully, the Ministers thought they ran the Country but were in fact ‘managed’ by the Civil servants. Sounds like the lunatics are now about to take over the asylum.

But the lunatics are not Ministers. Not elected. Completely unregulated and answering to no one that is in any way capable of reining in their egos.

All Civil Servants are subject to the civil service code and are answerable to places like the PAC and a wealth of regulatory bodies. They are there to deliver public services often under huge pressure. Let's remember stuff like all the measures to pay people affected by COVID was implemented by civil servants and OK might not be perfect but the country would have been very different without it.

Edited by orpingtoneagle (28 Jun 2020 11.09pm)

Yes it had occurred to me.

Then I looked at who was doing it

When you have a massively complex machine only the terminally naive sack the people that best understand how it runs. You wouldn’t do it in a cannery let alone with a multi billion pound enterprise.

We’ll see if the Mekon really does have a plan. It had better be brilliant. So not like the COVID debacle.

The Civil Service has not faced a structural reform in along time. If you think about the rest of the economy it is hugely different from say the 1970's.

If certain people are blocking reform of the service it is not only the responsibility of the government but the duty to move these people to one side.

We have seen with the virus how flat footed the government response has been. One of the issues has been who is in charge as responsibility is spread around the service.

The government is politically responsible but it is the job of the Civil Service to carry out the government's orders. If this needs a shakeup of the management structure that is not a bad thing.

Edited by Badger11 (29 Jun 2020 8.03am)

One more point

1. I didn't say that the service was not carrying out the governments orders I was complaining about the lack of speed and lack of accountability.

What Cummings is trying to do is to create small management teams with specific responsibilities. The government is about to launch a major infrastructure spend to kick start the economy something most of us would think is a good thing. However there is a huge gap between announcing funding and actually breaking ground e.g. Heathrow Expansion and HS2.

Whatever these projects are they need to be fast tracked so PR announcements become actual jobs. You don't need to tear down the Civil Service just re-organise the top management.

I don't have any evidence as you say but other countries seem to get things done quicker. I am not saying the civil service is obstructive but I am saying it lacks focus when you have projects that cut across multiple areas of government.

2. Sounds to me like you are describing the Civil Service.

One more point