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December 17, 2011
Gus O'Donnell and the UK Civil Service
The newspapers today report the departure af Gus O'Donnell as head of the UK civil service with his passing advice that spouses of Prime Ministers should be better rewarded.
That will be Cherie Blair, Samantha Cameron, Denis Thatcher - and the rest.
Never mind them but concentrate instead on the effectiveness of our civil and public service.
Followers of the campaign to rescue public libraries from the menacing hands of all those administrate and run them might observe the level of competence and standard of behaviour of civil servants in Whitehall and public officers in local councils across the country. Almost without exception, over a decade and more, almost every act that has been observed has been self serving, incompetent, idiotic, Kafkaesque in its malicious treatment of the public, and shameful.
Yet somehow, in the minds of the press and our hopeful British optimism, the civil service is a body above criticism and suspicion. They, it is felt, should be allowed to operate anonymously and independent of perspicacious scrutiny.
We blame passing politicians without properly examining the role and influence of career public officials.
Perkins does not agree. An old cat, she may be, but Gus O'Donnell and his cronies are of her generation. They went to the same expensive and privileged Universities that she went to . Upon them depended the administration of our country for the last twenty years. .... and they have been terrible. They have made themselves rich, honouredand aloof and removed themselves from the worth and duty of true public service - and they have presided over the decline and collapse of the prestige of our nation. The national and international mistakes have been appalling. The ability of one generation to pass to the next a climate of cultured respected governance and care has been placed at risk.
The civil service of our country needs total overhaul with urgency - and Gus O'Donnell with his attendance of incompetent permanent secretaries should be damned publicly for the role they have played.
Posted by Perkins at 6:49 PM | Comments (1)