Douglas Carswell's Blog

Whitehall is the road block to change

According to James Kirkup, the Coalition's radical reformist agenda is being thwarted by the senior mandarins in Whitehall.   

It was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes to see that this - not any constraints of being in coaltion - would act as the biggest road block to reform.  Being in coalition has become the excuse for not reforming further and faster.  It has seldom been the actual reason.  

Why was it clear this would be the case?  Firstly because so much public policy in Britain today is run by and in the interests of state functionaries.  Note Tony Blair's frustration with "the forces of conservatism" - he was not simply talking about Tories. 

Secondly because no serious thought has been given about how to rein in permanent officials addicted to the apparatus of control - and who believe, given their calling, that bigger government is better government.  If anything, the Institute for Government (the clue being in the title) has been helping set the agenda.

Ted Heath entered office promising radical change.  He was blown off course by vested interests, and it was left to the grocer's daughter to deliver what the grocer promised.  We must not let current government's bold agenda for change be thwarted by the mandarinate.

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