The British Government Takes on the British Civil Service

https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/07/04/the-government-takes-on-the-civil-service

by bryanrasmussen • 6 years ago

19 13 6 years ago

economist.com

stuaxo• 6 years ago

"This government has a better chance of building a more effective British state than any government in decades".

They saved the biggest joke for the end, this Government makes Theresa may look "strong and stable".

frereubu2• 6 years ago

I read this as being to do with a crisis (Brexit / Covid-19) being an opportunity, particularly with an 80-seat majority. But I share your deep cynicism about their ability to actually make any productive use of that, and in fact expect the opposite - a deeper crisis.

CodeGlitch2• 6 years ago

Not sure what this has to do with tech or HackerNews in general.

eeh3• 6 years ago

The leader of this, Dominic Cummings, advocates for a quantitative/tech approach to policy, e.g.

https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-w... on who he wants to hire.

https://dominiccummings.com/2019/06/26/on-the-referendum-33-... on tech to assist decision making in government.

https://dominiccummings.com/2014/08/19/standin-by-the-window... on his trip to SciFoo, and being a policy person amongst tech people.

rich_sasha• 6 years ago

His goals are rather dystopian though, despite the sophisticated tools.

There is no scientific view under which Brexit, which he helped achieve, is a good idea.

CodeGlitch2• 6 years ago

OK thanks due to the paywall I only read the 1st paragraph.

eeh3• 6 years ago

The article says this is led by Dominic Cummings, whose blog is https://dominiccummings.com/ if you want to know more about him. He advocates for a tech/quantitative approach to policy, e.g.

https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-w... on who he wants to hire.

https://dominiccummings.com/2019/06/26/on-the-referendum-33-... on tech to assist decision making in government.

https://dominiccummings.com/2014/08/19/standin-by-the-window... on his trip to SciFoo, and being a policy person amongst tech people.

He's not very popular in the UK, which is tangential to the article, so this thread is at risk of becoming a smear comment section.

Theodores• 6 years ago

Paywalled article. Without a link to the full article I am not sure this is right for HN.

In summary for international readers, the situation in the UK is that the British government changed with Brexit. There is the Prime Minister who was elected to get Brexit done, his unelected special adviser and fellow Brexiteer Michael Gove.

With the election the ruling party only have pro Brexit MPs, the pro-Europe supporting members of the party were replaced.

As a consequence government is not by cabinet, there is the clique of the Prime Minister, the special adviser and Michael Gove. Michael Gove has a proper job title but few Brits know it.

With the current lineup of the cabinet the special advisers for each cabinet member now have to work for the prime minister's special adviser. These civil service jobs are now political appointments.

There have been other changes that this article is about, essentially civil servants from the top down are being replaced with Brexit supporters. Normally civil service jobs go to those with experience and skills, not Brexit ideology.

In the process the trio running the country have picked a fight with the whole civil service.

frereubu2• 6 years ago

Turn off JavaScript (e.g. using uBlock Origin) and you can read it in full.

gandalfian2• 6 years ago

Or feed the URL into outline.com or archive.org

randompwd• 6 years ago

HN really needs tagged filters on submissions so i can ignore all 'general' news stories. So many non-tech, non-startup or non-'intellectual' stories hitting front page.

gandalfian2• 6 years ago

I worry it's the overconfidence of an Oxbridge education that leads to picking the most complicated of possible solutions. Rail privatisations or farm subsidies implemented in such a Byzantine way that no normal mortal can ever understand them, let alone implement them. Though ultimately we will get better government when the electorate votes for better people. Despite their good intentions so many of our MP's are way out of their depth.

The British Government Takes on the British Civil Service

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