As Graham Stringer, a Labour MP, told GB News: “I find effectively civil servants sacking a minister, which is what has happened, quietly disturbing because one of the great myths in our political life is that we have a non-political civil service”.
I do not believe there are conspiracies by officials to stop this or any other Government from getting on with its business. But there are deep-seated problems in how government works. Here are three issues that need to be tackled.
Still less are civil servants paid to do so rather than getting on with the job – which taxpayers fund.
Conservatives would do well to prioritise above all else the promotion of young, intelligent and furiously ambitious staffers granted a level of autonomy not seen since the administration of Empire.
If politicians come to believe that the civil service is preoccupied with speaking truth to power at the expense of doing its job, Francis Maude-type solutions will be imposed, regardless of which party is in power.
No, his does not mean that the UK has become “ungovernable” or that it will be “impossible for Ministers to do their job” or that his departure is a victory for “the Remainer blob” or evidence that the public sector is full of “snowflakes”.
He says the Prime Minister expects the ‘very highest standards’ from the civil service.
Whether the ex-Deputy Prime Minister is a habitual rotter who has received his just deserts, or a hard-working minister bullied out of office by snowflake civil servants, depends first on your opinion of the man, and then on how you define bullying.
In Wellington, the lines between government, politics, and lobbying are far more blurred than would ever be allowed in London.
One need not think Conservatives are right to mistrust the Civil Service to recognise that a move which fuels such feelings is dangerous.
The friendliness and expertise of the IfG’s staff, and worthiness of its aims, should not obscure its desire to place the fate of ministers in the hands of mandarins.
The Scottish Conservatives claim that £1.5 million of public money has been spent trying to build the SNP’s case for independence.
This Government does not have long to overcome quangoland’s opposition. It must show determination to get change in Whitehall before Whitehall’s resistance helps engineer a change of government.
The Party cannot afford to keep indulging in tough rhetoric on ‘culture war’ issues if it isn’t prepared to drive proper legislative and organisational change.
The technical details of her misconduct are getting lost amidst mass leaks from her department which seek to attack her on policy.