Simply astounded to read of “Cummings’ civil service reforms” as if it were a normal thing. What kind of country is it when an unelected advisor is given carte blanche to reconfigure the administrative state simply because he helped win an election for the Tory Party?
Surprising amount of responses to what I did not think was a particularly controversial observation.
Just for the record:
1) I’m not arguing that the civil service should not be reformed, though I wouldn’t claim expertise on how and where this should be done.
Just for the record:
1) I’m not arguing that the civil service should not be reformed, though I wouldn’t claim expertise on how and where this should be done.
2) What I find troubling is that an unelected advisor with deeply authoritarian instincts, who has demonstrated on numerous occasions that he doesn’t like the government to be accountable or held up by ‘needless’ court decisions, is now directing this reform process.
3) And framing this process in terms of efficiency/accountability to the public - at a time when the civil service was frequently blamed for ‘obstructionism’ during the last 3 and half years, and will now be charged with implementing decisions of a gov. hellbent on deregulation.
4) A government that has demonstrated time and time again that it hasn’t understood what leaving the EU means and doesn’t care, and doesn’t want to listen to people (civil servants) who don’t tell it what it wants to hear.
5) So none of this suggests to me that Cummings’ overall goal is ‘efficiency’ or accountability- not from this government. And I can’t help but feel just a little sceptical as to why a dogmatic ideologue like him has been given so much influence over this reform agenda.
The end.
The end.
