‘Permanent government’ seizes moment to shape thinking of elected politicians
Michael White writes in The Guardian:
When Tony Blair moved into Downing Street his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, used to tell visitors how the new prime minister would replace Whitehall’s feudal baronies with a Napoleonic model of government – a results-oriented regime driven from No 10.
A decade or so later the highly politicised, command-and-control approach, much of it visible in the Thatcher era, is more remembered for its failures – from Iraq to school Sats to ID cards – than its successes. In 2010 all parties agree, with varying degrees of contrition, that Whitehall should become cheaper, smarter, decentralised and customer-focused.
January 27th, 2010 at 17:50
We need a return to the spoils system in this country by which a change of political party in power would mean that senior civil servants are shown the [revolving] door.
“Permanent Secretaries and police chiefs can be much more dangerous to British democracy than demagogues and extremist politicians. By
collecting and sharing masses of private information either to provide the public services for which they are responsible or to try to spot future criminals, they are creating the database state.” Quoted in No2ID Newsletter No. 128 from: Technology should not be excuse to erode our precious freedoms – The Independent 17/7/09
http://newsletters.mu.no2id.net/2009-07/newsletter-128/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+No2idNewsletters+(No2ID+Newsletters)