In the main, many of the problems are caused by the mediocre politicians that direct the civil service, surrounded by snake oil sellers, disguised as special advisers. The original pre-Blair civil service model was actually reasonably efficient if not ground moving. What we have now is a shambles of policy failure, cost escalation, destructive panic measures and a Government with the intellectual capacity of an eviscerated snake....
August 8, 2006 at 8:12 AM
Anonymous
said...
"The report basically says no one gets fired for screwing up in the civil service"
Or indeed (if we consider Tracey's chipolata consumption) for screwing down!
There is a serious element to this. Anyone who now get's disciplined and possibly sacked for absolutely anything at all in the Civil Service will sue the backside off the government for discrimination on the grounds that the Civil Service Disciplinary Code has been applied in a completely different way to the Deppity's mistress than to anyone else in the government's employ.
So we see a SpAd responsible for not only assisting in bringing in one of the most hated pieces of carte blanche legislation (Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003) but also helping David Blunkett's bit-on-the-side's nanny circumvent immigration laws is now whining about the lack of accountability of civil servants?
I still look forward to the day when the way from Millbank to the Cabinet Office is lined on both sides with crucified Special Advisors screaming that it wasn't their fault. Perhaps there might be a national lottery scratchcard for the right to hammer the nails in.
RE Julian, No, I think you would raise more if you auctioned those rights off on Ebay.
I think the real concern here is crap polititians. After all the last Conservative government had a record on social mobility and educating kids with school meals that needed improving. This loot have made it worse. They are a disgrace.
August 8, 2006 at 9:44 AM
Anonymous
said...
Julian, your sick....but I like it. My own more modest proposal, is for the Conservatives to have a manifesto commitment for a bill (with retrospective provisions),forcing the treasury to recover the cost of all SpAd from an outgoing party who formed the previous administration.
August 8, 2006 at 9:52 AM
Anonymous
said...
benedict white, love the freudian slip
August 8, 2006 at 10:08 AM
Anonymous
said...
Hedgy said... What we have now is a shambles of policy failure, cost escalation, destructive panic measures and a Government with the intellectual capacity of an eviscerated snake....
8:12 AM
Come on hedgy, they're not that good
What we have now is a shambles of policy failure, cost escalation, destructive panic measures and a Government with the intellectual capacity of an eviscerated snake....
8:12 AM
August 8, 2006 at 10:13 AM
Anonymous
said...
Nigel Lawson's response to being asked to participate in the report (see the increasingly lacklustre commentisfree) was quite amusing:
"This is the most boring subject ever. Please do not write to me again."
August 8, 2006 at 10:31 AM
Anonymous
said...
Gotta luv the Lawson. I still remember his letter to Vanity Fair re: Leon Wieseltier.
Even monkeys with typewriters eventually produce some sense, which is what ippr have done here: Big Government is rubbish.
But as you say, G, for some reason they don't draw the obvious conclusion. Can't think why.
August 8, 2006 at 10:59 AM
Anonymous
said...
The civil service initially needs to become uncivil....i.e needs to be even more politicised.
No alternative of this if you want this country to become more democratic....i.e get rid of the weekly update meeting beween the monarch and the PM. Why is the monarch so-in-the-loop in the 21st century?
chaps...this is how the civil service will inevitably evolve.
August 8, 2006 at 11:07 AM
Anonymous
said...
'...they’re aren’t any rewards or sanctions in place for civil service delivery...'
In fact, there's just the opposite, a positive disincentive to produce. Anyone who rocks the boat by trying to get things done or make them work is labelled a troublemaker, denied promotion and, horror of horrors, no gong.
Whatever your views about the apportioning of blame for failure between SpAds and career Civil Servants, there are a few points on which I would think most sensible people can agree.
As a country we cannot afford to continue with a system of administration whose organisational culture seems to guarantee failure, namely management by committee, and the promotion of generalists beyond their capabilities over technical specialists. The French have the Grandes Ecoles, which produce technocrats who are technically and managerially competent to direct major technical projects and lead Departments of State. We have no such equivalent Institutions, and are infinitely the poorer for it.
As a Civil Servant at the bottom of the heap, I see the same errors being repeated time and again, and an organisation that never seems to learn from its mistakes. I see people with inadequate project management skills in charge of complex projects. I see arts graduates in management positions having to influence the design of IT projects for their staff, when they lack sufficient technical knowledge. I see an organisation where no-one has the courage to rock the boat, for fear of upsetting their superiors. I see certain IT companies supplying software time and again, where the products fail to do what they should because the requirements have been poorly specified due to inadequate in-house expertise (most the IT specialists having been got rid of).
Neither can we any longer justify terms of employment that allow the incompetent to retain their jobs and be shifted sideways, only to wreak the same havoc in a different area. Staff of whatever grade who, after remedial help for a specified period, will not or cannot perform, must be sacked. This should apply from the lowliest AA right up to the Head of the Home Civil Service. Moreover, a single person should be in overall charge, and accountable for the delivery, of major projects. If the project fails to deliver, that person should carry the can.
August 8, 2006 at 12:21 PM
Anonymous
said...
Spot on, david chappell - a particularly aggressive, head-in-the-sand form of laissez-faire prevails, notably in the 'economic' departments (Treasury, DTI). Instituted by Brown with all the ignorant fervour of a convert. Any excuse to do nothing.
re 12.21 , I think David Attenborough would describe that as "The plaintive cry of the Jabberwocky."
August 8, 2006 at 2:03 PM
Anonymous
said...
Come now, guido, shouldn't there be joy over a repenting sinner..
August 8, 2006 at 2:27 PM
Anonymous
said...
The IPPR and the rabble within are the cause of so much malaise in this country. A bunch of dedicated socialists, all seeking the holy grail of nirvana, and using our taxpayer's money in experimentation, and the electorate as the guinea pigs. A pox on them.
August 8, 2006 at 3:06 PM
Anonymous
said...
Backwoodsman 2:03 PM. Your posting made me recall that the proper name for the creature is Jabberwock, as in
And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!
Henceforth, my psuedonym will be The Jabberwock.
August 9, 2006 at 11:17 AM
Anonymous
said...
Jabberwocky - decoration on first period Worcester porcelain
There is an incentive to do well at service delivery in the Civil Service- we know it as 'out-sourcing'. Fuck up or don't provide any value to your service and your job gets out-sourced.
The problem is that centralisation of management and departments forms blocs of Civil Service workers and their unions, which are a political disincentive to do the right thing when they fuck up.
Decentralisation of departments and responsibilities might make it easier to force through incentives like this.
Many other people live with this threat- why not the Civil Service?
22 comments:
In the main, many of the problems are caused by the mediocre politicians that direct the civil service, surrounded by snake oil sellers, disguised as special advisers.
The original pre-Blair civil service model was actually reasonably efficient if not ground moving. What we have now is a shambles of policy failure, cost escalation, destructive panic measures and a Government with the intellectual capacity of an eviscerated snake....
"The report basically says no one gets fired for screwing up in the civil service"
Or indeed (if we consider Tracey's chipolata consumption) for screwing down!
There is a serious element to this. Anyone who now get's disciplined and possibly sacked for absolutely anything at all in the Civil Service will sue the backside off the government for discrimination on the grounds that the Civil Service Disciplinary Code has been applied in a completely different way to the Deppity's mistress than to anyone else in the government's employ.
So we see a SpAd responsible for not only assisting in bringing in one of the most hated pieces of carte blanche legislation (Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003) but also helping David Blunkett's bit-on-the-side's nanny circumvent immigration laws is now whining about the lack of accountability of civil servants?
I still look forward to the day when the way from Millbank to the Cabinet Office is lined on both sides with crucified Special Advisors screaming that it wasn't their fault. Perhaps there might be a national lottery scratchcard for the right to hammer the nails in.
RE Julian, No, I think you would raise more if you auctioned those rights off on Ebay.
I think the real concern here is crap polititians. After all the last Conservative government had a record on social mobility and educating kids with school meals that needed improving. This loot have made it worse. They are a disgrace.
Julian, your sick....but I like it. My own more modest proposal, is for the Conservatives to have a manifesto commitment for a bill (with retrospective provisions),forcing the treasury to recover the cost of all SpAd from an outgoing party who formed the previous administration.
benedict white, love the freudian slip
Hedgy said...
What we have now is a shambles of policy failure, cost escalation, destructive panic measures and a Government with the intellectual capacity of an eviscerated snake....
8:12 AM
Come on hedgy, they're not that good
What we have now is a shambles of policy failure, cost escalation, destructive panic measures and a Government with the intellectual capacity of an eviscerated snake....
8:12 AM
Nigel Lawson's response to being asked to participate in the report (see the increasingly lacklustre commentisfree) was quite amusing:
"This is the most boring subject ever. Please do not write to me again."
Gotta luv the Lawson. I still remember his letter to Vanity Fair re: Leon Wieseltier.
Even monkeys with typewriters eventually produce some sense, which is what ippr have done here: Big Government is rubbish.
But as you say, G, for some reason they don't draw the obvious conclusion. Can't think why.
The civil service initially needs to become uncivil....i.e needs to be even more politicised.
No alternative of this if you want this country to become more democratic....i.e get rid of the weekly update meeting beween the monarch and the PM. Why is the monarch so-in-the-loop in the 21st century?
chaps...this is how the civil service will inevitably evolve.
'...they’re aren’t any rewards or sanctions in place for civil service delivery...'
In fact, there's just the opposite, a positive disincentive to produce. Anyone who rocks the boat by trying to get things done or make them work is labelled a troublemaker, denied promotion and, horror of horrors, no gong.
Cutting the size of the extortion funded sector of the economy should be the goal of any conservative party and it's manifesto.
Pity Camerwrong is blair-v2, rather than conservative.
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8212152&postID=115499242810522586&isPopup=true
Whatever your views about the apportioning of blame for failure between SpAds and career Civil Servants, there are a few points on which I would think most sensible people can agree.
As a country we cannot afford to continue with a system of administration whose organisational culture seems to guarantee failure, namely management by committee, and the promotion of generalists beyond their capabilities over technical specialists. The French have the Grandes Ecoles, which produce technocrats who are technically and managerially competent to direct major technical projects and lead Departments of State. We have no such equivalent Institutions, and are infinitely the poorer for it.
As a Civil Servant at the bottom of the heap, I see the same errors being repeated time and again, and an organisation that never seems to learn from its mistakes. I see people with inadequate project management skills in charge of complex projects. I see arts graduates in management positions having to influence the design of IT projects for their staff, when they lack sufficient technical knowledge. I see an organisation where no-one has the courage to rock the boat, for fear of upsetting their superiors. I see certain IT companies supplying software time and again, where the products fail to do what they should because the requirements have been poorly specified due to inadequate in-house expertise (most the IT specialists having been got rid of).
Neither can we any longer justify terms of employment that allow the incompetent to retain their jobs and be shifted sideways, only to wreak the same havoc in a different area. Staff of whatever grade who, after remedial help for a specified period, will not or cannot perform, must be sacked. This should apply from the lowliest AA right up to the Head of the Home Civil Service. Moreover, a single person should be in overall charge, and accountable for the delivery, of major projects. If the project fails to deliver, that person should carry the can.
Spot on, david chappell - a particularly aggressive, head-in-the-sand form of laissez-faire prevails, notably in the 'economic' departments (Treasury, DTI). Instituted by Brown with all the ignorant fervour of a convert. Any excuse to do nothing.
RE Pedant, Yes, how appropriate can a typo be?
re 12.21 , I think David Attenborough would describe that as "The plaintive cry of the Jabberwocky."
Come now, guido, shouldn't there be joy over a repenting sinner..
The IPPR and the rabble within are the cause of so much malaise in this country.
A bunch of dedicated socialists, all seeking the holy grail of nirvana, and using our taxpayer's money in experimentation, and the electorate as the guinea pigs.
A pox on them.
Backwoodsman 2:03 PM. Your posting made me recall that the proper name for the creature is Jabberwock, as in
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
Henceforth, my psuedonym will be The Jabberwock.
Jabberwocky - decoration on first period Worcester porcelain
There is an incentive to do well at service delivery in the Civil Service- we know it as 'out-sourcing'. Fuck up or don't provide any value to your service and your job gets out-sourced.
The problem is that centralisation of management and departments forms blocs of Civil Service workers and their unions, which are a political disincentive to do the right thing when they fuck up.
Decentralisation of departments and responsibilities might make it easier to force through incentives like this.
Many other people live with this threat- why not the Civil Service?