Healthy tensions in the machinery of power
Letter to The Times
17 January 2013
Dear Sir
Some of those interviewed in your 'Whitehall at War' series imply that the impartiality of the Civil Service has been compromised by the greater use of political advisers. But this is a false opposition. Good policy is made through a healthy tension between the political drive and innovation brought by ministers and their special advisers and the institutional risk-aversion of a non-political civil service. My own experience working in Whitehall was that strong ministers almost always got their officials to do what they wanted eventually: although it sometimes took a lot of time and effort, the policies they introduced were better for being rigorously questioned and tested.
This process would be more efficiently accomplished if ministers had a much larger staff team or cabinet of the kind which operates in most European countries and in Australia. This should be a mixed group of political advisers and civil servants, charged with ensuring that ministers' policies are implemented - but also that they are well designed. Among other benefits this would provide a career path for some of the brightest and most innovative civil servants who in the present system frequently fail to get the top positions and end up leaving in mid-career. It would also end the silly characterisation of political advisers as somehow shady and illegitimate. Both they, and impartial civil servants, are essential to make government work well.
Yours truly
Michael Jacobs
Co-Editor, The Political Quarterly
(Special Adviser at the Treasury and No 10, 2004-10)
17 January 2013
Dear Sir
Some of those interviewed in your 'Whitehall at War' series imply that the impartiality of the Civil Service has been compromised by the greater use of political advisers. But this is a false opposition. Good policy is made through a healthy tension between the political drive and innovation brought by ministers and their special advisers and the institutional risk-aversion of a non-political civil service. My own experience working in Whitehall was that strong ministers almost always got their officials to do what they wanted eventually: although it sometimes took a lot of time and effort, the policies they introduced were better for being rigorously questioned and tested.
This process would be more efficiently accomplished if ministers had a much larger staff team or cabinet of the kind which operates in most European countries and in Australia. This should be a mixed group of political advisers and civil servants, charged with ensuring that ministers' policies are implemented - but also that they are well designed. Among other benefits this would provide a career path for some of the brightest and most innovative civil servants who in the present system frequently fail to get the top positions and end up leaving in mid-career. It would also end the silly characterisation of political advisers as somehow shady and illegitimate. Both they, and impartial civil servants, are essential to make government work well.
Yours truly
Michael Jacobs
Co-Editor, The Political Quarterly
(Special Adviser at the Treasury and No 10, 2004-10)
