3 ms·
I remember having a conversation in a pub with a junior Whitehall civil servant a number of years ago. Only half jokingly, he quipped that "of course the civil
by w_t_payne 13y ago
I remember having a conversation in a pub with a junior Whitehall civil servant a number of years ago. Only half jokingly, he quipped that "of course the civil service runs the country", noting the relative powerlessness of parliament.
Interestingly enough, the more senior (and experienced) civil servants that I have had the opportunity to talk to have been very careful to emphasise that the department answers to the minister.
Of course, the relationship between the civil service, ministers and the media is an unnatural, strained and stressful one -- I do not envy any of these parties, although I think that the media has the most (effective) power out of these three, given the proportion of central government activity (60-70%?) that is driven by whatever happened to be in the headlines that week.
- vidarh 13y agoWell to a large extent the civil service is meant to "run the country". The political leadership is meant to set the rules and directions, but they don't do the day to day grunt-work, and the civil service provides the continuity between governments and a lot of what they do indeed does span different governments without much interference from the political leadership. So his "joke" might have been a sinister indication that they are sidestepping political control, or just pointing out the realities of who does the actual work.
- w_t_payne 13y agoI suspect that he was just pointing out the realities of who does the actual work, but making a joke from the double meaning of the phrase "run the country".