Learning to live together

Any new government creates a set of personal and political tensions within and across departments; a coalition doubly so. And while the Clegg-Cameron chemistry will exude a powerful gravity at the top of government, further down we are likely to see a myriad of minor fracas as politicians and officials clash over responsibilities and policy conflicts.

The most obvious potential flashpoint is the intersection between George Osborne’s Treasury and Vince Cable’s business department; but for Lib Dem policy, this battle may already be lost. Cable failed to win control over banking regulation, and BIS’s remit is wide-ranging but thin; the Lib Dems’ influence looks weaker still when you remember that new Tory higher education minister David Willetts runs much of BIS’s budget, and that communities secretary Eric Pickles has pledged to axe the regional development agencies – an area of responsibility shared with BIS. Meanwhile, inside the department Cable will be pondering his relationship with his permanent secretary Simon Fraser, who was Peter Mandelson’s chief of staff in Europe before following his former boss into the department.

Another permanent secretary who may be feeling slightly uncomfortable is the Home Office’s David Normington, who finds himself working with Damien Green – the new immigration minister once notoriously arrested in Parliament after receiving documents leaked by a Home Office official. Meanwhile, new home secretary and equalities minister Theresa May may be on course for a clash with her Lib Dem minister Lynne Featherstone, who’s been given the equalities brief within the department.

Other potential tensions are emerging across government: it will be interesting, for example, to see how hawkish defence secretary Liam Fox gets on with his Lib Dem armed forces minister Nick Harvey, an outspoken opponent of Trident’s renewal. Managing such potential clashes will occupy much civil service time over the months to come, providing a challenge to match that of helping to broker the coalition; and, like that task of fast, professional diplomacy, this one too has the potential to result in either government disarray or carefully-engineered compromise. To a large extent, the outcome will depend on officials’ ability to learn fast and act intelligently; these are testing times for the civil service – but when were they last as interesting?