This week-end’s further details from the bunker that is Number 10 comes as no surprise to those of us who have studied the evolution of Cabinet, Prime Ministerial and official government in the last couple of decades. We can readily appreciate the picture of a Number 10 frantically issuing orders for a yet more initiatives and press releases, only to discover that little or nothing happens because they have not engaged the official machine and have not carried with them the relevant departments. You can feel the machinery straining against the politicisation, trivialisation and prostitution to the media schedules of so much of what they are asked to do.
I will remember the Labour years as years of hope dashed against the reality of incompetence. They tested to destruction two propositions. The first was that if politicians and their personal advisers took control of the old civil service information machinery they could write the newspapers and dictate to the 7 by 24 media the stories they wanted. Instead, as the gap between what they said and what was happening grew, the media became more critical, even downright hostile, despite all the spending on more and better spin doctors. They found out that they cannot fool all the people all the time, or even a majority of the people for most of the time, try as hard as they did. They just assumed the reality of government actions and experience would follow the optimstic press releases, without Ministers actively engaging day by day to persuade, shape, influence and control the output of their wayward, large complex and fast growing departments.
The second propositioin was that if they just hurled money at any problem, a largely unsupervised civil service would know how to spend it, and would fulfil their high level wishes. Equality would be furthered, child poverty abolished, inequality between schools and areas reduced or eliminated, the main public services transformed in quality and output by splashing the cash. If only. Once again, they have proven that if Ministers fail to engage with day to day management, to cajole, encourage, thank, reprove, and direct the spending of the money, it will not be well spent. Worse still, if Ministers just tell their departments to spend large sums before a year end, it is no wonder so much of it is wasted as officials seek to do their masters bidding without being able to spend it on things that might make a positive difference. To Labour, spending money is more important than outcomes. Efficiency has been a largely forgotten word.
So now ,according to sources close, we have a small group in Number 10 thinking up class warrior strategies, not trusting senior Cabinet colleagues or their departments, and trying to run so much from the centre without engaging the rest of government. This week-end Lord Mandelson seems to have both influence and interest again, so the Prime Minister has lurched towards posing as the friend of the middle classes, the very same people he was taxing and fighting so recently.No wonder Whitehall is bemused, or writing them off. To get the best out of the civil service Ministers have to have a clear sense of direction, to articulate it consistently and strongly,. and to check the important detail emerging from their departments to ensure it is contributing to the wider good and the strategic aims. There is little sign of any of that at the moment.