That sound you hear coming from Hyde Park in New York state is the sound of Franklin Delano Roosevelt turning in his grave, at the idea that Michael Gove & Dominic Cummings' reform of the civil service is inspired by FDR's "New Deal". Let's remind ourselves of what it did... 1/7
The 1st New Deal brought in unprecedented government regulation of American banks & the stock markets, to avoid a repeat of the Depression. This included clamping down on speculative activities in commercial banks (Glass-Steagall), & attacked corporate abuses rife on Wall St. 2/7
FDR's National Recovery Administration created corporatist collaboration between industry, unions & Govt to set minimum wages & maximum working hours, to set prices, & to write codes of fair competition. It led to a huge revival in the fortunes of American trade unions. 3/7
The 1st New Deal also invented a new central government architecture to distribute emergency relief, in the form of cash, loans & (most importantly) direct employment in local/state government, & work-relief programmes. FERA provided work for over 20 million people in total. 4/7
The 2nd New Deal focused on the most vulnerable: strengthening statutory protection for trade unions, regulating unfair working conditions, creating systems of social security & unemployment insurance, & massive central government support for migrant workers & tenant farmers. 5/7
If a massive expansion of central Government intervention in markets, corporatism, & focusing huge spending increases on the most vulnerable is at the heart of the Gove-Cummings revolution, then Gove laying claim to be FDR's heir may have some justification. But I doubt it. 6/7
And if Gove thinks "people in this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying they know what is best & getting it consistently wrong", what would he have said to FDR's army of experts who ran the acronom jungle of New Deal alphabet agencies? 7/7
