Top civil servant, Sir Mark Sedwell, is to be dismissed tomorrow.

lemon at an individual level I agree.

But we are talking about wholesale reform. How often have we seen this attempted for no good reason other than in this case someone who acts way above his pay grade.

I just wonder what will be the set standard for progressing to high places in the new Cummings regime? Who gave Dom the best birthday gift perhaps, or built him a better country home (and with planning permission).

Am not at all sure that wholesale reform will take place, but there has been talk of this before now ( and it hasn’t happened.) Some reforms can be a good thing of course, and obstruction by ‘mandarins’ in the CS is legendary.

I suspect that Cummings has a list in front of him of all those civil servants who have in any way criticised him and will get rid of them

This “reform” will amount to nothing more than that.

trisher

I just wonder what will be the set standard for progressing to high places in the new Cummings regime? Who gave Dom the best birthday gift perhaps, or built him a better country home (and with planning permission).

Being a weirdo, setting up posh sex parties, developing apps which don't work and believing in eugenics maybe.

The so-called obstruction by mandarins usually amounts to nothing more than telling the minister that something can’t be done because it is illegal or whatever.

Those ministers with huge egos or toddler mentality hate to be told it can’t be done.

Look at Jenrick! He went ahead anyway.

lemongrove

Am not at all sure that wholesale reform will take place, but there has been talk of this before now ( and it hasn’t happened.) Some reforms can be a good thing of course, and obstruction by ‘mandarins’ in the CS is legendary.

Legendary to whom? It's the stuff of the popular press and I'm never going to defend any hierarchy in its entirety. However, empty smearing doesn't achieve much.

What exactly do you think the current structure is preventing from happening? What needs to be done?

Ugh growstuff posh sex parties and Cummings!!! There should be a sickening emoji. Quite put me off my cup of tea!

Whitewavemark2

The so-called obstruction by mandarins usually amounts to nothing more than telling the minister that something can’t be done because it is illegal or whatever.

Those ministers with huge egos or toddler mentality hate to be told it can’t be done.

Look at Jenrick! He went ahead anyway.

The next step will be "reform" of the Justice Department.

Did people honestly vote for this? I honestly don't remember seeing it on any manifesto.

Here's a novel idea: How about the government does something about the country's appalling infection and death rates from Covid-19?

A friend used to be head of housing at a North London borough (Tory controlled) During the Blair era the head of the council asked her to do certain things. She said she couldn't because they were the opposite of govt directives. She was fired.

Just look at America - it seems that all the White House staff leave when there is a change of govt. How can there by any continuity?

Their job is to advise Ministers, not to have the power to block.
If it proves a mistake....that’s on the head of the Minister.

Oh - I see that Firecracker123 hasn't come back yet with an outline of what is bad in the civil service and what the reforms should be.

I was so looking forward to hearing more.

Come on Firecracker123 - don't be shy. You've made an assertion - now back it up with evidence and let us know what needs to be done, starting with Sir Mark Sedwill.

After all , if ever there was a disobedient civil servant he must be one!

lemongrove

Their job is to advise Ministers, not to have the power to block.
If it proves a mistake....that’s on the head of the Minister.

Civil servants don’t block. If something a minister is proposing is illegal or will be difficult because if funding etc. Then the civil servant has a duty to point this out. They do so from centuries of experience, not from a here today gone tomorrow politician.

Blocking comes in many forms....dragging feet on implementation is one of them.I agree, we need the CS otherwise it would mean a change of staff every time there was a change at a GE.
Certain depts though have done their level best to put off work done on policies hoping for a change of Minister etc.
Making sure that all departments are working well isn’t a bad thing, and if there is a need for change at ‘the top’ then so be it.

Certain depts though have done their level best to put off work done on policies hoping for a change of Minister etc.

How do you know that, lemon? Insider information?

Good he needs to go .....

Why?

Surely too much for one man to oversee anyway.

Do you have an insight into his workload and that of his predecessors?

I think we're waiting to hear about how bad the Civil Service is and what reforms it needs, Riverwalk. So we might get some information about workloads then...

lemon yo7 don’t know do you?. Go on own up, that is just conjecture.

So now we have it. The beginning of the politicisation of the civil service.

Robert Peston
@Peston
One of
@BorisJohnson
’s closest allies, David Frost - who has been negotiating the terms of UK’s future relationship with the EU - is to become National Security Adviser, in succession to Sir Mark Sedwill, who is standing down both as cabinet secretary and NSA.

As I am sure you all know, Frost is close to Dominic Cummings. So anyone who has persuaded themselves that Cummings’s influence has waned may need to re-think. Cummings’s pervasive influence was also manifest in the Ditchley Lecture given by Michael Gove,

I see the idiot quoted Gramsci.

My younger sister joined the Civil Service back in the '80s.
Before she was accepted she had to show that she had never had any allegiance to any political party.
She never told me much about her work except that she was moved from one dept. to another every few years. eg once on historic buildings, once on prisons, once on education.
She married a Scot and ended up in a high position in the Scottish Office, which I expect is a bit different from the English version.
She's retired now, but still won't talk about her opinions on what's going on there or in England.
Her husband is the same, except he will talk a lot about his work connected to agriculture and fisheries within the EU.

MaizieD

^Certain depts though have done their level best to put off work done on policies hoping for a change of Minister etc.^

How do you know that, lemon? Insider information?

Yes ( see my first post on this thread)
I don’t pretend to know a huge deal about the inner workings of the CS so don’t know if replacing Sedwell is a good move or not, but if it’s felt he should go and somebody else would be better in the job then so be it.That happens everywhere.