Working with the civil service- my Conservative Home article

I do not think the present government is getting the best out of the Civil Service. The Prime Minister has a new opportunity to construct a Downing Street structure and appoint staff he trusts to help him deliver his vision.

The Levelling Up Secretary has just unveiled a wide ranging set of proposals to spread prosperity, better jobs and ownership more widely around the UK. He will need the help of the Prime Minister to mobilise the various Whitehall departments that have crucial roles to play. He needs many actions from Education and Transport, from Treasury and Health, from Trade and from Business and from several others.

Inspired by the good response to my article on how Downing Street worked under Margaret Thatcher, I think it might be helpful to set out how the Thatcher team worked with Whitehall to put through bold new policies that were designed to improve the prosperity and freedoms of citizens. We were able to make substantial and timely changes without major constitutional upheavals or Civil Service reform.

I was struck by a recent article by Daniel Hannan which was critical of the Civil Service. He pointed out that officials make many errors and design bad policies which Ministers get blamed for. He felt Ministers now cower before Civil Service political correctness, and are told much of what they want to do is impossible owing to the views of independent quangos, the body of law and the results of arranged polls and one-sided consultations. He argued that the Civil Service has specialised in improving its diversity of recruits, whilst ensuring there is no diversity of outlook or view.

He contrasted the successful pursuit of working vaccines by an individual brought in from outside to lead a specialist small unit to solve the problem, and the difficulties with the rest of the pandemic response that mainly relied on more traditional Civil Service people and procedures. He sees the Civil Service as internationalist, pining for Remain and in favour of a larger but not necessarily a more effective state. Ministers he concluded are there to take the blame and to be in the wrong, but often have insufficient engagement or leverage over the large staffs that work in their departments and quangos.

I know what he means, but I think many of the answers lie in the hands of good Ministers. Ministers with a large majority have the crucial power to change the law if the old laws get in their way. They can command huge resources of people, money and message. They can abolish quangos, appoint new Heads, issue clear new public instructions to them which Parliament may debate. They can ask their departments to do more of this and less of that. They have the power of the purse and of the pulpit.

When I helped Thatcher there was of course a Civil Service culture and a controlling set of ideas within the Civil Service machine that was not the same as the collective views of the government. The official Civil Service government was not proposing Union reform or privatisation or lower taxes. It would have preferred to live with a larger public sector and older comfortable ways. It seemed to find the wind of change we wanted as abrasive. Some probably wanted it to fail to be able to say quietly it had warned us of its imperfections. Aware of this I decided on a careful course of action to implement the big idea of wider ownership, of everyone an owner. It was a popular idea that embraced many of the actions and policies that the Civil Service and Unions found challenging.

I did not suggest to the PM that she held a Cabinet, flagged up the big policy aim and challenged the Civil Service to create and use the conventional architecture to deliver it. The last thing I wanted was an overarching Cabinet Committee for wider ownership. That would doubtless have slowed and diluted what we wanted to do. It would have given critics of the whole idea a forum to debate the philosophy and sow doubts. Cabinet Ministers would have been less willing to accept individual responsibility. Instead the PM and Cabinet colleagues introduced the main ideas split by department, with the PM discussing with each of the relevant colleagues how they could pursue the key parts as stand alone ideas within their areas.

The Treasury was to lead on privatisation with John Moore, a Minister, to work bilaterally with the other sponsor departments on the relevant industries. The Treasury would mastermind the timetable and offer central resource on the preparation and sale process. The Social Security department was to lead on pensions reform, introducing personal portable pensions for the first time so people could control their own retirement savings more directly. They did so via a general welfare review to gauge demand, to seek outside views, and to reform other features of what they were doing. Norman Fowler did a great job, with no leaks as he prepared the ground for radical changes.

The Business department led on making it easier for people to set up and grow their own businesses and worked with the Treasury on tax incentives. The energy department worked on radical proposals to get more cheaper energy to fuel our businesses, introducing pro competitive policies, as well as preparing gas and electricity for privatisation. The Housing department was to hone and improve the Right to buy policies to give more people a chance to own, and to develop homesteading, shared ownership and sales of redundant public sector land to boost wider home ownership at affordable prices. The Transport department offered National Freight for sale to its employees in an exciting experiment with employee ownership as well as selling BA and bringing in more private capital to buses.

It was only when I was confident that each Cabinet member had found policies they liked and were willing to see through, and was sure the Departments would assist them, that I proposed to the PM she set out the overarching vision and tied it all together. As there was already buy in by the main departments the vision then helped. The Civil Service ensured each major privatisation we did needed individual legislation, resisting enabling powers. I decided not to fight this as we needed a measured pace of privatisations and Parliamentary process allowed a public debate and consideration of all the detail in each major case.

Today there needs to be similar commitment to levelling up department by department. Education will doubtless take responsibility for challenging targets for literacy, numeracy and qualifications. Health will need to think through how it achieves the bold aims on eradicating health inequalities by region. Transport has a major task to clear the jams and improve the trains in many places. Business and the Treasury need to give more thought to improving the UK’s competitiveness so more businesses start up and more investment is attracted.

The Government’s enthusiasm for more devolved power to Mayors and Councils will cut across some of the national targets and programmes and will provide a complication more than an impetus, save in the minority of places that find and back a Mayor or Council that does know how to do it and how to work with central government.

The new structures at 10 Downing Street risk being top heavy.  They will need the Chief of Staff to work well with the Cabinet Secretary, the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office and the Permanent Secretary of Downing Street. This weeks failure of the government machine to deliver an NHS plan in time for the PM and Secretary of State to announce it on Monday is a sign of how things need to be improved sharply.

115 Comments

  1. Mark B
    February 9, 2022

    Good morning.

    . . . many of the answers lie in the hands of good Ministers.

    And that is about the sum of it, and supports what I and others have been saying for sometime that, our membership of the EU has reduced the quality of MP’s and the reduction in the ability to do things for ourselves has resulted in a serious loss in core skills.

    They have the power of the purse and of the pulpit.

    Absolutely correct ! They are not there to act as an Aunt Sally for a failing department. The Senior CS is in charge and fully responsible for what goes on. The Minister is there to protect the public purse and to implement government policy. If government policy cannot be implemented then there are a range of measures that can be used. There can be no excuses for failure !

    It would have preferred to live with a larger public sector and older comfortable ways.

    Bureaucratic inertia.

    The new structures at 10 Downing Street risk being top heavy.

    Why am I not surprised. All Socialist governments are.

    Sir John. The so called ‘Levelling Up’ nonsense is just a Trojan Horse policy designed to interfere more in our lives. True Conservatives believe in the policy of equality of opportunity, much of which you have written about, whereas Socialists believe in equality of outcome. One such socialist policy that believed in that was that everyone should have a University Degree. It did not matter what degree it was, so long as everyone got to go to university. Result – massive personal debt both the graduate and / or the taxpayer and no benefit to society at all.

    If government found that leaving well alone would :

    a) produce better results.

    b) mean a smaller CS.

    c) lower costs of government and taxation.

    1. SM
      February 9, 2022

      +1

    2. MFD
      February 9, 2022

      +1 I totally agree Mark

    3. BOF
      February 9, 2022

      Mark B. I intended to make the point re the socialist pipe dream, equality of outcome and equality of opp.ortunity so I am with you on that.

    4. Peter
      February 9, 2022

      ‘I do not think the present government is getting the best out of the Civil Service.’

      Sometimes all that is needed is an old fashioned kick up the backside.

      There is currently a massive delay at the DVLA. They are currently processing paper applications from mid November! They have had strikes and the excuse of Covid.

      It should be simple enough to weed out skivers and malingerers and/or draft in temps for a short period to clear the backlog. The managers in charge should pay a heavy price for this failure too.

      Not a civil service issue but local government one -The libraries in my borough are now closed on Tuesday with the excuse that they do not have sufficient staff to manage them. There need to be consequences for unjustified absences.

      1. Mickey Taking
        February 10, 2022

        ‘I do not think the present government is getting the best out of the Civil Service.’
        An alarming thought – what if we ARE ! Downhill from here.

  2. turboterrier
    February 9, 2022

    Can anyone remember the day when it was announced there would be a big bonfire of quangos? Did someone lose the fire lighters or matches? Or is it just another words no action decision, thinking that the plebs will never notice so carry on as normal.
    Just imagine what an impact that would have had in the civil service. OMG there would have been utter panic about the extra work load and the realisation if they can do that to them, they could or will be next. It does rather impact on how to work smarter instead of harder method of operating.
    Change the culture, introduce 5 year renewable contracts based upon performance and continual improvement and performance on reducing waste across the departments.

    1. Mark B
      February 9, 2022

      QUANGO’s are great for PM’s and Ministers as they can award very nice jobs to their friends and supporters. A bit like the honours list.

    2. lifelogic
      February 9, 2022

      Before every election from the Tories (at least) we get the promise of tax cuts or (no tax increases) and a bonfire of quangos and red tape and better public services. Post election it is all forgotten we get higher taxes, more red tape and even worse public services. We still have not had the ÂŁ1m each threshold for IHT promised by Osborne years ago. This made Brown bottle his early election plan. Thank goodness Brown never won another term. But the socialist Cameron/LibDim Coalition was dire enough anyway.

      Civil servants have no direct interest in efficiency and well directed policy – quite the reverse in fact. They just want a good salary/pension and not too much to do. They are in the regulation, inconvenience and large taxation industry so the more the merrier. Just as happy blocking the roads as they are unblocking them or taxing some people to buy others restaurant meals – economic insanity is just fine to them.

      1. Mark B
        February 9, 2022

        As proven in a court of law, manifesto promises are ‘aspirationa’ and therefore not binding.

        Read the small print. The one written in invisible ink 😉

      2. Hugh Clark
        February 11, 2022

        Absolutely correct, lifelogic. A near perfect description of civil service attitude and outlook from Westminster to Parish Council level.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      February 9, 2022

      Turbo. Bloody right. Your post reminds me of Yes Minister which was on tv last night. Brilliant show and I would imagine closer to real life than we realise.

      1. John C.
        February 9, 2022

        The astonishing thing about that series, or series of series, is how up to date it is; in other words, how little has changed.

  3. David Peddy
    February 9, 2022

    Good article.
    It is clear that the Civil Service in this country has become :
    1: Obsessed with Political Correctness to the point of rendering itself inert in the face of an issue
    2: Obsessed with notions of inclusivity, equality, diversity , gender, race and other “woke” nonsense
    3: Overmighty : it considers that it makes policy not that it reviews ,advises and implements that which the ELECTED government of the day wishes to enact
    4: Obsessed with staying as close to the EU as possible
    It is clear that the Civil Service needs to be reminded of and put back in its place ,which as Sir JR says, needs a strong minister with continuity of service
    Jacob Rees Mogg has been put in charge of civil service reform .Let us hope that he starts with reminding them of these facts . He could also create a signal and simultaeously cut government spending , by imposing a total freeze on all administrative recruitment : they must promote and move around from within
    I am reminded tht Lord (Digby) Jones commented upon leaving the Dept of Trade “that he could have done twice as much work with half the number of people”

    1. turboterrier
      February 9, 2022

      David Peddy
      Agreed, especially your second point.
      It’s all but out of control especially from the BBC. Last night the gay theme was over done in Holby and the new maternity drama following. Thank god for CDs and DVDs. All commercial advertising now seems to be completely “woked” We are no longer our own country so it would seem.7

      1. Lester_Cynic
        February 9, 2022

        Turboterrier

        I agree totally, if I want to watch a programme I record it and fast-forward through the Ads and also rely on box sets of DVD’s and I NEVER watch anything on the Brussels Broadcasting Company

    2. lifelogic
      February 9, 2022

      6. Obsessed with the deluded net zero religion. Perhaps the largest error of this list.

      Digby is surely right. Many civil servants just get in the way of the productive both in the state sector but also in the state sector. Many government departments just fighting between themselves with often completely negative outcomes in terms of any value for the public.

    3. Sea_Warrior
      February 9, 2022

      The efficiency measure most needed is the making redundant of all civil servants with ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’ or ‘equality’ in their job titles. And the Commission for Division can be wound-up at the same time.

      1. rose
        February 9, 2022

        Very good, Sea Warrior, and throughout bodies like the NHS and Police too.

    4. alan jutson
      February 9, 2022

      David

      I certainly remember Digby Jones comment, but if anything the ratio of people to results has got worse since then.
      For whatever reason, and I am sure there are many excuses, we seem to lack Ministers with any sort of drive, a whole host of management skills, resolve, and dare I say it, simple common-sense.
      Perhaps it starts with the failure of the MP selection procedure, if you do not have good Mp’s to start with, you cannot possibly expect to get good Ministers !

      1. Timaction
        February 9, 2022

        Nail on the head. I’ve worked with and interacted with MP’s who are simply………….useless fools. On the other hand many MP’s are clever and talented. The key is 1.Selection and 2. Appoint the correct people to Ministerial roles on merit not PC wokeness/lying skills.

      2. Timaction
        February 9, 2022

        Further to the above. Recruitment and selection of Civil Serpents and other public sector leadership positions needs radical reform. This has not happened under this administration after 11.5 years. They either agree with this left of centre pc/wokeness within these organisations, they are afraid to confront it or are incompetent.

  4. turboterrier
    February 9, 2022

    The civil service has a heavily ingrained culture that has been around since its inception. Rather like some of the old nationalised industries where bad practice became was adopted as normal The not a problem, it wasn’t my money attitude was rife.
    When change had to come it was very painful and at times very mercenary bought about fighting a 100 years of inbreed culture. What it did do was it opened up the companies for their younger people to become the heart of the change and take on new ideas and practices and above all give them feeling of ownership in that they were getting involved with their ideas and visions. Change real change is not such a bad thing.
    Disband the quangos that have been allowed to have too big an influence on government thinking, the perception is they are dictating government policies far above their remit, stifling real investigation and research to be carried out by the minister they report to. They are just one take on the problem and are not the panacea to all thats wrong. Like the old nationalised industries they create their own little culture with massive implications but are not responsible or accountable and basically they don’t have to give a stuff “it’s not their money”

    1. Mark B
      February 9, 2022

      Good post.

      I remember the, Big Bang in the City. All the old institutions were exposed to more modern practices and competition. Suddenly the, ‘Old School Tie was not enough to make it, you really had to know what you were doing and be prepared to make risks if you wanted the rewards.

  5. Sea_Warrior
    February 9, 2022

    (1) JRM, in his Minister for Brexiteeriness hat, needs to get industry – rather than the compromised CBI – in through the door to tell him which EU regulation needs to go. And then the government needs to use its majority to push the legislative change with vigour. We are only half-way through this parliament.
    (2) Boris is no ‘OD’ expert – and it shows. The Cabinet Secretary doesn’t seem to have much of a job now. Boris needs to get some external management consultants in to sort out the mess at No 10. The mini-reshuffle hasn’t improved things as much as is needed.
    (3) Last night, I enjoyed catching an episode of the BBC’s new drama series ‘Yes, Prime Minister’. ‘The Key’ was about the role of the Spads and the Cabinet Secretary.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 9, 2022

      (1) Wouldn’t it have been better to have done that before the referendum, and have used that as a basis to decide if there were any case for leaving at all? They’re hardly queuing up right now, are they?

      Quite clearly Leave had absolutely no idea.

      It isn’t the European Union’s fine and trusted standards which are the problem for UK business.

      It is brexit red tape.

      1. Sea_Warrior
        February 9, 2022

        I’m currently going through ‘The Investment Trusts Handbook 2022’. (Free on Kindle.) It has made the point that investment trusts – a very UK form of fund – remains bound by an EU directive that was designed for very EU fund structures. I’m guessing that you’re content with that; I’m not.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          February 9, 2022

          The Tories have a majority of 80-ish.

          What stops them changing that rule?

          Nothing whatsoever.

          Maybe those affected didn’t pay enough to get to tell any of them about it?

      2. Jazz
        February 9, 2022

        Fines for Britain and wink wink nudge for Germany and France. Fine and trusted standards. Hahahahaha

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          February 10, 2022

          It is in the UK, where Fraud is costing businesses and individuals ÂŁ137 billion each year, not the institutions of the European Union, Jazz.

          ÂŁ137 billion, every year.

          Think about that.

          1. Peter2
            February 10, 2022

            Only in the UK?
            More dodgy guessed statistics from you NHL

    2. rose
      February 9, 2022

      The Cabinet Secretary is in charge of the whole Civil Service, ten thousand of them in the Treasury alone.

      1. Mickey Taking
        February 9, 2022

        Ten thousand being led by the largely economically blind with out-of-date data !

      2. hefner
        February 11, 2022

        According to crowe.com 23/06/2021 ‘The financial cost of fraud 2021’ a report from the National Head of Forensic Services ‘Fraud is costing businesses and individuals in the £137 bn a year’.
        I do not know whether this report is credible, but P2 could at least try to check before writing his usual comment on NHL. How does he know that it’s a ‘dodgy guessed statistics’ if he has not even cared to see where such an information might come from.

        Whaoh, P2, what a brilliant ‘debater’.

    3. turboterrier
      February 9, 2022

      Sea Warrior
      External consultants.
      I would have thought that there are enough back benches across the house who would have the necessary experience to operate in a totally neutral manner, who can recognise dead ends and false trails when they are presented as an excuse.
      This is far greater than saving Boris and the party this is all about saving the country, because if something isn’t done PDQ then the lot of us are destined for dead end street.
      It does ask serious questions about the calibre of the people all parties select for election. The majority I fear are not fit for purpose.

      1. turboterrier
        February 9, 2022

        Should have read : on the back benches

    4. Roy Grainger
      February 9, 2022

      Have you had any experience with external management consultants ? They are not a solution to anything.

      1. turboterrier
        February 9, 2022

        Roy Grainger

        +1

    5. Pedro
      February 10, 2022

      (1) industry has been screaming for years it wants to follow EU rules, it’s our biggest market by far. Change UK rules and all you do is make UK goods noncompliant with international standards

  6. Everhopeful
    February 9, 2022

    Oh dear!
    But what IS Johnson’s “vision”?
    He’s not done much except hitherto unheard of totalitarian type stuff.
    How can JR be so optimistic when we have that Online Harm Bill looming?

    1. Everhopeful
      February 9, 2022

      If any government had ever done anything that actually worked

      We would not be in this pretty pickle!

      1. Mickey Taking
        February 9, 2022

        yep – an amazing ability to ruin, not improve.

        1. Everhopeful
          February 9, 2022

          +1

  7. SM
    February 9, 2022

    I have read this morning about the major problems that have existed with the English Test system for those applying for UK citizenship, and how the Home Office appears to have shrugged off the issues for some years now.

    In 2016, my S African daughter-in-law, then living in the UK with my son and I, applied for UK citizenship, having fulfilled all the necessary rules; she took both the History and English test -and passed them – and brought home a copy of the latter to show us. Both my son and I have English at O and A level, and he is a professional (non-fiction) writer and editor, and we were horrified by the many mistakes in the English language questions.

    I brought this matter to the attention of my constituency MP- then a junior Minister, who contacted the Home Office about this. The reply was: we are perfectly satisfied with the test contractors, there are no problems, good-bye. My MP said he was not surprised, as he had frequently noticed the civil servants in his own Dept were usually unable to write straightforward and competent English.

    1. Christine
      February 9, 2022

      Every printed letter produced by the Civil Service has to be approved by the Plain Language police before it is allowed to be used. Their remit is to dumb down the wording to the lowest level rather than trying to raise the standard of English used. This results in very badly written letters.

    2. Mickey Taking
      February 9, 2022

      and over many years teachers don’t correct spelling mistakes, and it would appear they can’t spell either !

  8. turboterrier
    February 9, 2022

    Best of the Civil Service?

    What’s that when it’s at home?

    Sir John, thank you for putting in the DH link.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      February 9, 2022

      LOL

  9. Andy
    February 9, 2022

    A report by MPs today says that additional costs, long border delays and extra paperwork are the main impacts of Brexit to trade so far. It adds that these will get worse if the government doesn’t fix it.

    Most of you are Brexitists. You claim – falsely – that you are free traders. What you have actually done is erected huge barriers to trade with our biggest trading partner. You didn’t understand what you were voting for. You didn’t – and still don’t- know what the EU is and what it does.

    Tragic.

    But it is also really quite funny how embarrassingly bad your Brexit is. I don’t want to pay more for stuff but at least I can afford it. Many people who voted for Brexit can’t afford the Brexit price hikes. My heart will bleed for them when I finish laughing at them.

    1. Richard1
      February 9, 2022

      The jury is out on Brexit, it is too early to say whether it will be a success or not. But the remarkable thing is how little effect it has had, compared with the remain campaign’s project fear. And that’s despite the EU looking hard for ways it can damage the U.K. pour encourager les autres. So I suggest you hold your laughter for the time being, you might look rather silly in a couple of years time.

      1. IanT
        February 9, 2022

        He already looks “rather silly” Richard – the best way to deal with these comedians is to just laugh at them 🙂

    2. Sea_Warrior
      February 9, 2022

      What a truly miserable person you must be, coming here day after day to spread your bile over this site.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      February 9, 2022

      Andy. Another very childish post. Best hurry. You’ll be late for playschool.

    4. Roy Grainger
      February 9, 2022

      If there had been Brexit price hikes our rate of inflation would be higher than the EU. It isn’t. Anyway, glad you are so wealthy, means you can keep paying for my pension. Keep up the good work !

      1. Peter Parsons
        February 9, 2022

        But we were promised cheaper food after Brexit, so why isn’t our rate of inflation lower?

        1. Peter2
          February 10, 2022

          Our rate of inflation is better than America and the same as the EU.

          1. hefner
            February 11, 2022

            That was not PP’s question? P2, why can’t you answer looking at UK figures? Are you ashamed of them or is it the usual, oh so British, look a squirrel?

            UK RPI over 2021 is 7.5%, UK 2021 GDP growth is 7.5% (in 2020 -9.4%).
            Which shows that the Covid impact in the UK has not yet been compensated in terms of GDP and that it is very unlikely that most people in this country are better off than in February 2020.

          2. Peter Parsons
            February 11, 2022

            But we were told leaving the EU would cause food prices to drop, so why is our rate of inflation not lower than the EU’s?

          3. Peter2
            February 11, 2022

            Wrong heffy
            PP talked about inflation
            Did you not read the post correctly?
            Sad you cannot debate without rudeness.

          4. Peter2
            February 11, 2022

            PP
            Do you not realise that food is just one element of how the RPI is constructed?

    5. Glenn Vaughan
      February 9, 2022

      “I don’t want to pay more for stuff but at least I can afford it.” Andy

      Seems like another rescue by the bank of mummy and daddy.

    6. Mickey Taking
      February 9, 2022

      a nice humanitarian response. Do you find neighbours and associates avoid you?

      1. Andy
        February 9, 2022

        I don’t care if they do avoid me. They are mostly elderly Brexitists – so I avoid them anyway.

        1. Mickey Taking
          February 10, 2022

          I got it in one, didn’t I !
          Hope the children still talk to you.

    7. MFD
      February 9, 2022

      I actually have boycotted all goods and produce from the EU , doing without where I could not find an equivalent. It was difficult to start but now more and more I am getting local and buying seasonal.
      I encourage all to try it, you well not regret the move.
      I started out trying to hurt the EU but now do not care either way about them, I am finished totally with them.

    8. agricola
      February 9, 2022

      Andy, trade with the EU was never Free Trade, it was trade within a Protectionist Bloc. Adequate for the few, but it could not survive careful examination, a slight of hand three card trick for the unquestioning.
      In your last paragraph you sound like that delightful Mr Toad propagandist who sank the Ark Royal so frequently.0

      1. Andy
        February 9, 2022

        The ‘EU is a protectionist bloc’ was the Brexitists’ theory.

        But I’m afraid your theory has crashed into an awkward reality.

        So you enjoy your massive traffic jams, huge amounts of extra paperwork, delays, extra costs and human poo covered lay-bys in Kent
.

        
 and we will laugh at you.

        So much winning.

    9. No Longer Anonymous
      February 9, 2022

      Where going to by a bench and on it inscribe “Here sat Andy, who hated the view…” HT to NLH.

      Of course. Andy didn’t lose his job when his local factory was outsourced to Poland, did he. He didn’t have to compete for the jobs that were left with incomers, did he.

      To top it all… he has to use private education to shield his kids from the very worst effects. Don’t you trust selective education to find the right level, Andy ? Like we did ?

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        February 9, 2022

        “We’re going to buy a bench…”

    10. Original Richard
      February 9, 2022

      Andy,

      I would put the “additional costs, long border delays and extra paperwork” down to the deliberate intransigency of the EU to punish us for leaving, as proposed by President Hollande in October 2016.

      But I am willing to accept this difficulty to regain the ability to influence our laws and policies by retaining the right to elect and remove those who make our laws and policies.

      Simply, freedom costs.

      However, I think we should cancel the existing trade agreement with the EU and use WTO rules as I think they would provide some protection against EU trade barriers and sanctions. Especially as you give the impression that goods from China enter the EU more easily than goods from the UK.

    11. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 9, 2022

      Yes, the compliance costs alone of brexit red tape are put at ÂŁ15 billion.

      Just remind us what our net annual contribution fee to the European Union was, someone?

    12. Lester_Cynic
      February 9, 2022

      Andy

      Yea contribute nothing to this site but just spew bile, at least you seem to have ceased blaming everything on the elderly
. thank you for that Sir John, hasn’t the time arrived for complete exclusion?

    13. John C.
      February 9, 2022

      A rather disturbed contribution, Andy.Your inability to decide whether to laugh or cry, to weep or rejoice is a common affliction of adolescents, but not of much interest to the rest of us.

  10. Everhopeful
    February 9, 2022

    I’m reading that this lovely government is still bullying NHS staff about getting the jab.
    How can any of the above take place, how can we reach the “sunny uplands”, when Ministers and their minions renege on policy decisions?
    Does the govt actually reach any firm decisions 
or is it all make believe?

  11. Donna
    February 9, 2022

    “We were able to make substantial and timely changes without major constitutional upheavals or Civil Service reform.”

    So you left the problems there to fester and grow. Which, in due course, gave Blair the opportunity to carry out his half-baked, destructive “reforms.” Politicising the Civil Service; dragging us further into the EU (thank the Lord we kept out of the single currency); corruption of the House of Lords; a flawed devolution which makes the English first-class taxpayers, but second-class voters in our so-called democracy; destroying the Law Lords and creating the politicised Supreme Court.

    It is not clever in the long-term to circumvent “a blockage” and ignore what is causing it. And the cause is the politicised, institutionally left-wing Civil Service and a Constitution which was far too easily abused by the Remainers in Parliament and the wider Establishment.

    1. agricola
      February 9, 2022

      Very well said Donna, but accept that at that time SJR was not boss cat in practise even if he was intellectualy.

      1. Donna
        February 9, 2022

        I realise Sir John was not responsible for the failure, but in this article he seems to be promoting the idea of Johnson’s Ministers circumventing the Civil Service “blockage” in order to try and get their policies through when all that will do is leave the problems in place, ready for the next Labour Prime Minister to exploit again.

        Cummings knew that Civil Service reform was essential to get the Government’s programme through. It is also blindingly obvious that Constitutional reform is very badly needed. But we have a lazy and incompetent Prime Minister who failed to seize the day because it was so much easier to revert to “liberal metropolitan” obsessions and virtue-signal.

        Sir John should be demanding reform, not instructing Ministers on how to get around their obstructive Civil Servants.

  12. Sakara Gold
    February 9, 2022

    Thatcher did make changes to the Blob. She viewed the Civil Service as inefficient, badly managed and unresponsive. In 1979 the civil service numbered 732,000.

    The most important time for change in the Civil Service occurred after 1988 with the “Next Steps” reforms. These reforms were issued after the publication of a report by Sir Robin Ibbs. He identified a number of major issues that he felt should be addressed – the service lacked innovation, it was too large to be efficient with too many jobs duplication with many departments overlapping and the service was not providing a quality service for the country – both the advice it gave and its policy implementation were poor. By 1997, staffing had been cut to 500,000 – with most of the reduction being re-assigned to QUANGOS.

    As of the end of September 2021, there were 472,700 full-time equivalent civil servants. The new minister for levelling up may care to note that about half of them can speak the dead language Latin.

    1. Peter2
      February 10, 2022

      SG
      You haven’t allowed for the growth in Quangos NGO’s and agencies where large numbers of now work.

      1. Peter2
        February 10, 2022

        Sorry I realise you actually did talk about the effect of quangos.
        The other two I mentioned also have a big effect on real numbers.

      2. hefner
        February 10, 2022

        P2, what do you think SG means when he writes ‘with most of the reduction being re-assigned to QUANGOS’? How is this compatible with your ‘you haven’t allowed for the growth in Quangos, NGOs and agencies where large numbers of (them) now work’.

        Have you ever tried to read (properly), pause (just a little while) and think (a bit) before writing?
        You got ‘top mark’ today for buffoonery. Well done.

        1. Peter2
          February 11, 2022

          Look above hef
          Wind your neck in.

  13. Nig l
    February 9, 2022

    Excellent article but looks like well accepted change management principles to me. Two problems. A chaotic Prime Minister incapable of giving the discipline and rifle shot focus this approach demands and equally weak ministers with neither the necessary big organisational experience nor courage to take on their civil servants and of course often promoted as a political favour or protection rather than competence.

    The total lack of performance and project management, umpteen billions of waste just shrugged off gives the game away.

    As an example Jacob Rees Mogg knowing the writing was on the wall, in my view shamelessly and insincerely, praised the PM and was rewarded by a non job with a pay rise.

    Frankly I wouldn’t trust him to drive Noddy’s car let alone Brexit and government efficiency. If ever there was a reason to expect little to change or hope for the future, that was it.

  14. Will in Hampshire
    February 9, 2022

    Interesting to see that Mr Johnson has appointed Mr Rees Mogg to a new role in which he will be accountable for delivering the benefits of Brexit. I’m sure that we can rely on our host to speak with him at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps someone should send him the link to this site.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 10, 2022

      He will be accountable for nothing.

      He’s a Tory.

      1. Mickey Taking
        February 10, 2022

        moving bums around on seats, all Governments do it !

  15. Richard1
    February 9, 2022

    I think the difference is with Margaret Thatcher we had a PM with a very clearly articulated policy and direction of travel, and an intense application to work to make it happen. Whilst Boris Johnson has many excellent political qualities, including being highly intelligent and, when he wants to be, articulate, it is questionable as to what his political vision really is, and how closely he applies himself to make it happen. Covid accounts for a lot, so I suggest giving him until the middle of this year and making a change if we don’t see a radical reset.

  16. Old person
    February 9, 2022

    Most of the problems with the civil service have been in the making for a long time. Lord Hewart warned about this in the 1920’s.
    Instead of passing Acts of Parliament, clauses were added to allow a Minister or senior Civil Servants to add Statutes to the legislation with and without timeout clauses. These Statutes were rarely discussed in Parliament.

    There is now the added complications from SPADs, private industry and dare I say lobbyists influencing the Minister. Even the PM and the people around him influence the Minister. Despotism at it’s worst.

    At one time, the civil service attracted the sharpest and keenest of minds, but now the highly skilled have moved into private industry measuring success by salary earned rather than by intellect and knowledge.

    The Corona Virus Act is a perfect example, where changes were announced to the MSM first before Parliament was informed. Yes, all of government needs reform.

  17. Peter
    February 9, 2022

    The Prime Minister is the bigger issue.

    Thatcher was a strong and determined leader with a clear view on what needed to be done. Johnson is weak and vacillating and really only interested in what benefits him personally.

    So I don’t see a PM driving change. He will continue to just let things happen – Northern Ireland for example.

  18. Maylor
    February 9, 2022

    One of the problems with the Civil Service is that the management structure has grown at the expense of those on the front line. Many managers are brought in directly from university with no idea of how a department actually functions but instead are fully armed with the ‘woke culture’.

    There should be an independent review of all departments to ensure efficiency and best working practices which I am sure would identify a lot of ‘dead wood’. But this will not be allowed to happen as there are too many ’empires’ to protect.

  19. Nig l
    February 9, 2022

    And in a metaphor for why I have little hope for Sir JRs approach, Javed has totally failed to wrangle tougher targets out of the NHS. Eye watering budgets already and now another 12 billion so that waiting lists get longer for two years.

    Covid exposed their failure to roll out efficiently large projects plus who knows what other waste there is and what does Javed do? Seemingly roll over.

  20. Roy Grainger
    February 9, 2022

    “Health will need to think through how it achieves the bold aims on eradicating health inequalities by region”.

    They won’t need to think about that for a few years though as there are far more pressing concerns, the current backlog won’t even start reducing until 2024 apparently.

  21. ukretired123
    February 9, 2022

    Behind every great leader is the organiser and architect as your proven insight and track record has produced a release of productivity undreamt of before. We are so grateful that Mrs Thatcher changed so much to help Britain survive the Unions who hated individuals wanting to pull themselves up above just survival.
    Until Mrs T arrived Britain was a basket case aka “The sick man of Europe”. The brain drain occurred because simply regardless of how much you worked you could never save money – as one of my talented professional colleagues said before leaving.
    As many here note Boris is a fool not listening to your wise advice and prefers shallow trendy lightweight unproven cardboard cutouts sadly.

    1. ukretired123
      February 9, 2022

      The point is what’s the point of working for nothing. That’s why the April NI tax bike is so critical to avoid going back – basic economics.

      1. ukretired123
        February 9, 2022

        Errata Hike

  22. Christine
    February 9, 2022

    I worked in the Civil Service during the 80s and 90s. Back then it was quite well run. Margaret Thatcher moved many well-paid CS jobs from the south of the country to the north. This was an early form of levelling up. All her good work has now been reversed. Most of the CS jobs have gone from my area moved to the cities under the Power House of the North initiative. The cheap CS offices here have been demolished, replaced by housing estates. Even the newest office which was only completed 20 years ago is now set to be demolished.

    The only gainers from this are the companies that own the office buildings in the cities that the CS departments now rent. It does make me wonder if this was the true reason for the Power House of the North. Follow the money as they say. The whole thing stinks.

  23. agricola
    February 9, 2022

    We are comparing chalk with cheese. Delightful though Boris may be I sense he is a warm up act. He lacks the vision of Thatcher , nor does he have the management skills. His best bet is to gather a competent team about him and play conductor.
    After PPE proved the inadequacy of NHS management/ civil service, Boris had the wisdom to bring in someone from the private sector to sort vaccines and vaccination. The Lord Beaverbrook moment. This principal should be applied to the NHS to allow it to provide the timely medical care to the current 6/7 million awaiting it. The only concept to be retained being free at the time of need to those in need, while accepting that anything paid for with tax only carries the illusion of being free. Beyond this nothing by way of greater efficiency and better outcomes should be off the agenda for discussion. There being no point in encouraging good advice only to hang it out to dry on political doctrine. The principal is management by one strong highly competent individual who can surround him/herself with the talent required, in much the same way as I imagine a destroyer in the Royal Navy is run.
    If the principal learnt during the vaccination programme can be applied to the NHS with success then it is fit to go for most other ministries. The civil servants then become the worker ants, which around the NHS they have already confirmed their limitations as such.

  24. glen cullen
    February 9, 2022

    I liked everything right until you mentioned city & regional mayors

    1. Everhopeful
      February 9, 2022

      +1
      Yes
that was a very nasty EU “regionalisation” sort of moment.

  25. ChrisS
    February 9, 2022

    Today Ageism is a barrier to older people retaining or being appointed to important jobs, despite legislation to the contrary.

    Our host is the same age as me and I feel sure that (his age ed)he still retains the necessary intelectual vigour, skills and accumen to hold down the job of chief of staff to the PM. We can be sure that he would be just as effective in the role as he was in a similar position under Margaret Thatcher. Obviously it would be much more challenging because Margaret was extremely well organised and had a laser-like focus on achieving her desires in office. Both of these are qualities that Boris obviously lacks !

    Appointing Steve Barclay might have been a good decision had he not already had two other full time jobs. As such it seems likely to cause all three jobs to be done half-heartedly. Our host would do the job far better.

    Reply It is not my age that prevents the PM appointing me. I suspect it is my views on the NI Protocol, social care financing and the road to net zero.

    1. ChrisS
      February 10, 2022

      I am sure you are right ! The road to net zero is the crucial thing here, though. I don’t believe Boris will allow any significant deviation from his net zero agenda, whatever ministers announce about “new” gas fields getting approval.

    2. Mickey Taking
      February 10, 2022

      Well Sir John, with your views (and most of the country?) how could a fool such as Johnson be intellectually underminded by you? He knows not to risk any chance of hanging on by fingertips.

  26. a-tracy
    February 9, 2022

    All I hear from Government is excuses as to why you can’t do things ie the UK can’t drop vat because of Boris deal over N Ireland? We can’t do anything about quickly processing asylum claims because of an agreement struck by Theresa May before she left office? Just what are the proposals to get the NHS waiting lists down, if Spain and other holiday destination countries are short of tourists does that mean their private hospital staff or even their hospitals have spare bed space to utilse?

    Could we look again at vocational nurse training, a longer degree say 5 years with 4 days in hospital learning on the job (or are modern sisters/matrons not wanting to teach on the job?) and one day release to the nearby university, from 16 or 18 years of age? Could we change the name of nurse to medics to make it more attractive to male trainees? We could then employ people near the local hospitals instead of from the nearest university which not all caring teenagers can afford to attend.

  27. a-tracy
    February 9, 2022

    Is there any analysis done on which wards in which hospitals are performing the most productively and which ones aren’t? Even though there are no charges applied to each procedure, are points awarded to each completed procedure and then a management review on the wards that are doing well and sharing best practices with the same function wards in other parts of the Country? You could look at opening a primary school near a hospital for the nursing staff children primarily with a creche, look at better transport near hospitals and linking up to main railway stations with trams.

    Near the Stoke hospital, you can buy a 2-bed terraced house starter home for ÂŁ90,000. The only good thing about your right to buy housing policy was that you have a lot fewer people on housing benefit now and they often don’t get any help at all unlike what our resident elderly basher on here claims.

    Private hospital procedures are a lot more expensive due to the hours they continue operating into the evening and weekend rates, the individual en-suite rooms, what are the comparisons on productivity i.e. cost -v- procedure such as cataract operations, or appendectomy?

  28. Original Richard
    February 9, 2022

    How is it possible to work with a fifth column civil service determined to ruin the country by implementing the economy destroying Net Zero Strategy, continuing with social cohesion destroying mass immigration with a head of Border Force decreeing that “borders are a pain”, obstructing all positive legislation, and spending money like its water and often without any control on fraud?

    Only by our elected MPs actually taking control and not allowing themselves to be bullied by the civil service. But I cannot see this happening with our current PM and Parliament despite a 78 seat majority.

  29. Iago
    February 9, 2022

    This, said today, seems relevant –

    ‘It’s BREXIT all over again the sneering contempt for the masses by a ‘progressive liberal’ elite who think they know best. They are neither progressive nor are they liberal. As their forcing of vaccination and using of surveillance passports show they are highly authoritarian, and anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the established group think is considered an enemy of the new totalitarian globalist superstate they are building.’

  30. Peter Parsons
    February 9, 2022

    If the present government is failing to get the best out of the Civil Service, that is the government’s failure, a failure of leadership, not the Civil Service.

    If the Civil Service are not given clear direction and outcomes, deliverable policies to implement and targets to achieve, then it is very difficult for them to be successful, but it is not their failing.

    On a different note, I see the Michael Gove has stated the obvious (at least to anyone with a decent knowledge of different areas of the UK) about trickle down economics being a failure that has simply increased inequalities across the country.

  31. X-Tory
    February 9, 2022

    Yes, Sir John, there are ways to circumvent the civil service’s deliberate obstruction of Conservative policies, but these depend on determined and savvy ministers putting in a lot of effort to do so. It would be much easier to simply change the rules to stop the obstructionism in the first place! The two changes that are required are (i) to allow ministers to sack any civil servant whom they have no confidence in, for *whatever* reason. And (ii) to make it clear that ministerial decisions *are always legal* unless they are proven not to be so in a court of law. This would also apply to judges, so they couldn’t make temporary injunctions to prevent a ministerial decision being implemented until the date of the full hearing (as has happened in Northern Ireland, with judges preventing checks on goods entering from the UK from being abandoned)..

    Make those two changes and ministers will be able to drive the changes in policy that they want without being blocked by undemocratic and unelected civil servants and judges.

  32. Andy
    February 9, 2022

    258 dead with Covid every single day for the last week.

    159,000 now dead in total. Infections still high. Many thousand unnecessarily dead in the last month.

    Now, in an effort to detract from their scandalous partying, they are lifting isolation rules. People with a sometimes deadly disease now allowed to do what they like to try to kill you. In thousands of cases they will succeed.

    Outrageous from an outrageous government.

  33. DOMINIC
    February 9, 2022

    You ‘don’t work with’ the unelected, unaccountable Civil Service, you instruct them to carry out your policies to the letter and if they refuse you sack the bastards, cancel their pensions and destroy their careers. It is that simple.

    But parties like John’s party and scum Labour choose the easy path and either refuse to reform or politicise the bureaucracy to bid Labour’s Marxist agenda. Who needs Putin and Xi as enemies when you have the SNP-Tory-Labour progressive authoritarian combo

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 10, 2022

      Here’s an individual who loves his countryfolk – unless they are teachers, university staff, cyclists, council or government employees, writers, broadcasters, actors, musicians, comics, health workers, trade union members, tube drivers, exporters to the European Union, scientists, technicians, engineers, meteorologists, craft brewers and micropub operators, ramblers, Guardian readers, the young generally, in fact everyone apart from the military and the tetchier among the self-employed tradesmen class, it seems.

      1. Peter2
        February 11, 2022

        You mistake the difference between Civil Servants and public sector workers.

  34. Lester_Cynic
    February 9, 2022

    More censorship on JR’s diary, what a surprise

    Pretty Polly is right, TCW is the way to go because this is a totally meaningless exercise

  35. forthurst
    February 9, 2022

    Daniel Hannan is being unduly kind to ministers by blaming the Civil Service for the failures of governance which we experience; perhaps he is hoping the selectors will look more kindly on his ambition for a safe Tory seat?

    JR highlights the radical changes which he helped a radical PM to realise. There was no doubt that
    there was civil service overreach in the economy stemming from the nationalisations of the Atlee
    government whose template was the alleged efficiency of the Bolshevik Empire in delivery through centralised control of everything.

    The question remains however; what work is best performed in the private sector and what in the
    public sector and if it should be in the public sector whether primarily it should be organised nationally or locally. There are things that clearly are national where the resource is hugely expensive and only one is needed such as a national rail grid, a national electricity grid, a national gas grid, a national landline telephone grid where the foremost requirement is security of availability in all circumstances, and since the government has embarked on a deliberate policy of reducing the security of availability from the electricity and gas grids, there has to be a serious question as whether a Central Electricity Generating Board under a Sir Walter Marshall, a theoretical physicist, would tolerate the insanity emanating from BEIS and agree to close down potential sources of dependable generation whilst increasing dependence on undependable sources. Marshall was the man who kept the lights on during the miners’ strike; who will keep the lights on when the whole of power generation is privatised and when saving the planet, irrespective of risk or cost is being pushed through by a department headed by a Politics graduate and a collection of equally unqualified civil servants in his department.

    The health service is an example of where no national solution is required; healthcare is provided locally by the medical trained through hospitals and other promises. Apart from capacity planning at a higher level, there is no need for a national framework at all; it simply provides make-work for the civil service as does most of their involvement in hospitals. Doctors and nurses understand about nosocomial infection; the lay administrators clearly don’t otherwise the hospitals would not be such dirty places. There are roles for unqualified staff in the health service as almoners and other workers but why are they in charge throughout the structure?

  36. XY
    February 9, 2022

    Con Home is run by a remainer eco loon.

    I doubt that it was a coincidence that just around the time the party nonsense began, the true conservative posters’ accounts started to find it difficult to post.

    Up/down voting appeared to work, but of you refresh the page, the vote had disappeared.

    Then posts went to moderation, never to be seen again – no notification in the usual account history, just gone.

    If you look at the comments section now, it’s almost 100% lefty remoaners, the sensible posters are no longer seen.

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