Douglas Carswell's Blog

Governed by mandarins

On election day, voters around the country elect MPs, who then debate and decide public policy.  

Except since being elected to Parliament, I have discovered that that is just not so.

What should we tax and by how much?  What should be the interest rate?  Do we need a new snooping law?  All these kinds of  public policy questions tend to be decided by officialdom with surprisingly little reference to those you voted for.

Too often MPs simply rubber stamp decision made in Whitehall (think caravan tax). Too often ministers end up as little more than a departmental mouth-piece.  Newly appointed ministers are expected to acclimatise to departmental thinking, rather than change established Whitehall assumptions.

Tomorrow the government is due to make public plans for civil service reform.  I had hoped that these reforms would make the Whitehall mandarinate answerable outwardly to the people, through Parliament; confirmation hearings before Sir Humphrey gets the job. Fixed terms contracts for senior civil servants.

Instead, I suspect we will get lots of internal managerialist blah blah – after which Sir Humphrey’s will be able to carry on in Whitehall as before.

The fact that the permanent officials have managed to hijack attempts to make permanent officials accountable to the rest of us, tells us who calls the shots.

Government of the mandarins, by the mandarins, for the mandarins .... 

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