I've stumbled across a small tale that brilliantly illustrates the importance of thinking before you answer a question.
Sir Oliver Franks was Ambassador to the United States in the late 1940s. One year, a Washington radio station asked various ambassadors what they would most like for Christmas. The French Ambassador responded that he would like to see peace throughout the world. The Russian Ambassador said he wanted to see working people of the world freed from imperialism. Franks' response... Read full post

It was announced yesterday that government’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), Joe Harley, is leaving at the end of the financial year. This is something of a shock, because Harley has been heralded as the man who will transform government’s IT fortunes. It’s also quite concerning because his own department, DWP, has a very large IT system that needs to be in place by 2013, and Harley will leave before the system is fully developed.People come and go, but Harley’s... Read full post

Speaking in an interview with the Sunday Times last weekend, chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander said:
"I think government benefits from having all sorts of backgrounds and, equally, from different parts of the country. There's a danger that civil servants in Whitehall are very London-based people who never go beyond the M25, so sometimes they need to be reminded that there's a whole country out there. And now, more than ever, I realise how immesely privileged I am to have grown... Read full post

Spot the difference:
David Cameron speaking to the Daily Telegraph, August 2011: “We haven’t talked the language of zero tolerance enough but the message is getting through.”
Bill Bratton, David Cameron's new policing adviser, speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee, November 2010: "First, I would not advocate attempting zero tolerance anywhere in any city, in any country in the world. It’s not achievable. Zero tolerance, which is often times attributed to me and... Read full post

What’s going on with the Open Public Services White Paper? The bill, which is supposed to set out the government’s vision for the future delivery of public services, has been delayed once again. It was initially due in January but is now due in July, according to the latest Cabinet Office business plan. The trouble is, as one very senior source whispered to me recently, the politicians “just can’t agree on anything.”
As I understand it, there are three camps in... Read full post

What begins with mutuals could end with privatisation
It is not controversial to observe that, under this government, the UK’s public sector is in rapid retreat. The coalition’s massive reductions in departmental expenditure and civil service operating costs ensure that public spending as a proportion of GDP is set to fall for years to come. Hammering away in the media, ministers endlessly portray this as a rebalancing of the economy – repeating statistics designed to show... Read full post

We need a fall-back plan in case the cuts prompt a double-dip 
 
Reading through our Permanent Secretaries’ Round-Up, it’s striking how many express their pride in the civil service’s rapid response to the radical policies set out by the coalition. To the surprise of some new ministers, the civil service has demonstrated the strength of its commitment to serving the elected government – and in the process, won the trust of the prime minister, the deputy PM... Read full post

Secret info is best dispensed by a tap, not a tsunami
 
With intelligence information, it seems, it is flood or drought. For decades, Britain’s intelligence agencies operated so deep in the shadows that their public profile was defined largely by George Smiley and James Bond. Since 1994, they’ve crept slowly onto the public stage – in part thanks to the work of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) – and we now have a more accountable set of agencies... Read full post

From the reporters’ eyrie up in the rafters of the House of Commons, MPs’ hairstyles are more obvious than their faces. Unless the press pack are trying to identify – to name a couple at random – Michael Fabricant or William Hague, this is more handicap than advantage. But the vantage point can provide the odd interesting tidbit; and the reporters couldn’t help noticing, as Ed Miliband sat awaiting his first Prime Minister’s Questions as Labour leader, that a... Read full post

Public finances crisis may persuade HMT of the need for reform
 
Every solar system needs a fixed point to revolve around – and in the solar system of government, that immutable object is the Treasury. For centuries, HMT has laid down the spending rules and distributed the cash, defining the orbits of the spending departments. Secretaries of state may govern their own little worlds, but it’s the Treasury that determines their climates.
 
Those climates are now, of... Read full post