Douglas Carswell's Blog

The triumph of the mandarinate

If you want to know why public policy often never seems to change regardless of who we elect to Parliament, read this brilliant piece in this week's Spectator by Quentin Letts.

Even before the Coalition was formed, it was obvious to those with eyes to see that the greatest threat to reform came from the Whitehall machine. 

On all the big issues of the day - macroeconomic policy, Europe policy, defence policy, immigration, our approach to crime and justice, human rights - it is the mandarinate who define the parameters of public policy.  Too often, ministers are left to chose what is on the wine list.

For all the talk of radical change, in what I once termed a stuggle between the technocrats V Google-ites that lies at the heart of the current administration, the technocrats have won. 

If you have the same technocratic mandarins that Labour had in charge, you end up with the same technocratic approach to public policy.  And the same public policy.

So what can we do about it? 

One way would be to make the mandarinate directly and openly accountable to Parliament;  confirmation hearings before being given the job and annual budget approval. 

But I suspect it will take even more than that.

Perhaps next time the Queen invites a reformist Prime Minister-elect to form a government, they ought to first insist that she sign half a dozen Orders in Council sanctioning the removal of various Sir Humphrey's at will.  Instead of the head of the civil service welcoming the elected Prime Minister into Number 10 like Gus O'Donnell did, the PM might instead summon the Sir Humphrey's in for a little chat.

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