9 May 2019

Letter to the Editors

The Civil Sevice

from Anthony Silver

Dear Sir,

Maybe it is a generational thing, maybe it is the propaganda from “Yes Minister”,  but I have always believed the British Civil Service to be sort of World Class, and that while their political masters might be flapping about from pillar to post, they got on and did the job, behind the scenes,  of keeping the UK running irrespective of what political party or Minister happened to be in power.

3 recent events, that have been the fault of the CS rather than politicians have seriously eroded my faith:

• Windrush scandal
• The lack of conditional  trade treaties with other countries for post Brexit
• The ineptitude and confusion recently displayed by Natural England, which is ‘sponsored’ by Defra,  (see Lynda Goetz’s excellent ‘Ruffled Feathers’).

It has come as a sobering realisation of how rubbish our Civil Service truly is.

Regards

Anthony Silver

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