The Civil Service is the problem

Andrew Gilligan’s superb article in today’s Telegraph is required reading for anyone interested in how the Coalition government may fare over the coming months.

Gilligan observes that the biggest challenge to the Coalition is not “Lib Dem back benches, the Tory back benches, the grassroots, the public”. The real threat comes from the Civil Service.

Gilligan contends that the Civil Service, for reasons of self-interest rather than ideology, rather likes the “apparatus of control, prescription, excessive laws and targets”. They “believe, given their calling, that bigger government is better government”. “Whitehall sincerely thinks that it is one of the best things about Britain”.  

The reality is that the British state is dysfunctional. It cannot administer its own Byzantine tax and benefits system fairly. Cannot control who settles here. Is unable or unwilling to convert £ tax into military equipment competently. Won't contemplate the desperately overdue reforms needed to trade, agricultural and fishery policy. Is incapable of reducing, let alone reversing, the flow of red tape regulation that stifles enterprise.

Why is the British state so incompetent? It has little to do with the colour of the rosettes ministers wear on polling day. Rather it is because the primary function of the British state increasingly seems to be to serve the interests of those who work for it. 

Fixing this won’t just take a change of government – but requires taking on the vested interests who preside over public policy.

Commentators looking for ideological division within the Coalition have scoured around for wet v dry debates, or Euro sceptic v enthusiast rows. They are looking in the wrong place.

The real difference of ideas will be between those who recognise that the Civil Service is the problem – and try to make big government more directly and outwardly accountable (the Google-ists). And the technocrats behind the Institute for Government agenda of more upwardly accountability, facile streamlining, and non-executive boards.

The future of the Coalition will be shaped primarily not by the debate between left and right, or Lib Dem v Tory, but the Google-ists v the technocrats.

Posted on 18 July 2010 by Douglas Carswell

Comments

'The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding beaucracy', in fact.

While you're at it, break up the BBC. It sticks in the craw to fund a left-of centre propaganda machine which is entitled to demand money with menaces from citizens wishing to own a television.

Good luck.

Posted on 18 July 2010 12:16 by RL

It's not just government that's incompetent. The private sector's pretty rubbish too. (Read a Dilbert cartoon, you'll understand what I mean)

Posted on 18 July 2010 13:12 by CB

Hear, Hear.

Posted on 18 July 2010 13:30 by Russ Williams

I left the civil service because of this very issue. Unless you bought wholeheartedly into the idea that ANY intervention by government is inherently good and worthy, they would look at you as if you were speaking french.

The Permanent Secretaries run the departments and despite the 'Sir Humphrey' stereotypes are, on the whole extremely accomplished and experienced administrators. They are only human, and will of course seek to defend their 'empires'. They can usually run rings around ministers, because very often politicians are simply not up to the job.

It amuses me that politicians are often so vain that they believe that just because they have been elected as an MP (hardly a great feat in many instances), that this magically qualifies them to ably perform any task presented to them. Michael Gove was a journalist, John Prescott a shop steward, Cameron a PR guy/career politician; what makes them think that they are suddenly so uniquely blessed to be able to run and reform organisations which often consist of tens of thousands of employees? Its absurd!

I so hope it happens, but it will require a determined and sustained act of will by Ministers to see it through. Two small things which will help are;

- Ministers should be allowed to stay at their departments for more than 10 minutes at a time (unlike the last 13 years). The constant turnaround of ministers (sometimes at an almost comical pace) under the last government gave enormous power to Permanent Secretaries because Ministers were always new, so finding their feet, and were themselves aware that they were unlikely to stay for long. This meant that long term reform was either not embarked on in the first place, or could easily be shelved by civil servants 'between ministers'.

- Apply the turkeys at Christmas rule and don't involve the Permanent Secretaries when looking to reduce and restructure. Hire in the skills needed to perform the job. There are specialists who spend their whole careers undertaking organisational/cultural change within institutions. They should report directly to the Minister, circumventing the Permanent Secretaries, who would only be responsible for enacting the changes.

Posted on 18 July 2010 14:28 by RedBull

Absolutely right. And I'd also like to say I agree with the first comment, by RL. Privatise the media! It's insane that taxpayers should be paying for the BBC.

Use good old socialist talking points: "In the interest of fairness and equality, we have decided to privatise the BBC. 'Fair' because now the poorest in our society no longer have to pay a burdensome TV tax, and 'equality' because now all the media organisations have equal opportunity at success and no-one has an unfair advantage. Furtermore, is it really fair that people should have to pay for a service they don't want?" And so on.

The argument is easy to make!

Posted on 18 July 2010 14:39 by John

@cb

No I'm afraid you're wrong it's not the private sector that fails it's the multinational, megacorporation of 14 layers of management ie just like the civil service that fails. Read Dilbert it doesn't take place in an SME or long tail based business.

Small is beautiful, economics as if people ( the customer, taxpayer, elector) mattered

Posted on 18 July 2010 14:55 by libertarian

@redbull

Once again I find myself in agreement with you.

Posted on 18 July 2010 14:58 by libertarian

I'm a Civil Servant in a Government Agency.

The vibes I'm getting are that the people delivering a service at the sharp end in 'my' Agency are adjusting quite well to the new regime. Some of the Govt's instructions have caused concern .... for instance our Educational Campaigns have been lumped in with the now banned Advertising and Marketing activities that some Government Departments were obviously indulging in .. and we have had to stop them, which is a shame because they were very effective and delivering results.

I know there will be staff reductions and there is a possibility I will be out of a job. I am mentally preparing myself for this possibility and if it happens I will go back to the private sector, whence I came, and do whatever job I can find. But in the meantime as a Civil Servant it is my duty to implement the policies of the elected Government so that is what I am doing. Any Civil Servant who it is proved is doing otherwise should be dismissed.

Posted on 18 July 2010 15:10 by Boudicca

One cannot do better than quote the inimitable Jerry Pournelle.

"Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions." <http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail408.html#Iron>

Posted on 18 July 2010 17:50 by TimC

I think David Cameron should appoint you as Minister for Civil Service Restructuring.

Posted on 18 July 2010 18:35 by David Hough

Damn good read, this!

Posted on 18 July 2010 20:17 by Simon

The other side of the problem, though, is that politicians are not competent to control the civil service. Politicians spend far too much time doing politics to be able to master their brief, particularly as it can be reshuffled away from them at a moment's notice.
The civil service does have the technocratic expertise; it is not entirely self-serving, but that is a predominant theme. Incidentally, it also explains why the civil service itself is so Eurosceptic: it wants to keep powers in Whitehall, not Brussels, and it hates the Brussels way of doing things which is often, but not always, rather good.

Posted on 18 July 2010 20:40 by ejoftheweb

Yep. If you really want to change things, it's the upper-echelons of the civil service you need to cull first.

<a href="http://www.devilskitchen.me.uk/2010/05/labour-is-not-opposition-civil-service.html">"Labour is not the opposition... The civil service is."</a>

Posted on 18 July 2010 21:14 by Voluntarist

What a surprise. Whilst the politicians have been robbing us of democracy the Civil Service have been robbing the politicians of power.

Not a recent phenomena but a certain one that Margaret Thatcher discovered to her cost. She had a Plan B.

There are still a lot of white elephants kicking around that would raise significant sums of money. I would suggest that Cameron starts developing his Plan B. Just in case

Posted on 19 July 2010 09:06 by waramess

It looks like some Chief Constables are showing their true colours as well:

http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/chief-constables-ignore-teresa-may-shock/

Posted on 19 July 2010 09:30 by AKM

The recent Policy Exchange presentation "Getting big things done in government: How to successfully implement public policy" should strike a cord. Step one is to devolve power to local government.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjJ1apzpK1Y

Posted on 19 July 2010 14:06 by Dave B

It's already happening to Andrew Lansley's reforms of the NHS. The standard bearers of Soviet style command and control are watering down his excellent ideas as we speak... Not surprising when you understand that the head of the NHS is a former commie!

Posted on 20 July 2010 10:56 by civil servant

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