The latest copy of Private Eye has a major feature on the
cosy relationship between senior civil servants and heavyweight businesses supplying government
with a vast range of services.
To my mind the magazine is worth buying for this alone, although the general
thrust of the piece could be summed up by a single quote.
A survey earlier this
year in the Daily Mail found that two thirds of the jobs applied for by top
mandarins since 2008 were in the sectors they were responsible for in office.
A well known trend but it is worth reminding ourselves just
how corrupt the civil service has become in recent decades and how open the
corruption is. The interesting question is where this particular trend is
headed and here too the answer is obvious. We seem to be witnessing the rapid growth
of a complex oligarchy operating well beyond the feeble checks and balances
supposedly supplied by democratic accountability.
6 comments:
Yes.
And once again the body that approves or otherwise these moves fails to halt any of them.
Which along with commons committees banking regulators and the SFO makes one once again after "lessons will be learnt" question the point of all these well paid jobs, they are as guilty as those who apply.
Which reminds me isn't it time for another expensive and pointless inquiry to be instigated, after all the millions spent on Chilcot had absolutely no impact on anything and has already been forgotten rather like David Cameron another waste of time.
And double yes. Corrupt is and does.
Private Public Partnership - den of iniquity.
Much of this started back in the nineties.
When I was an arch-networker for a large building project manager company, we would normally ignore anyone who was associated with the Civil Service, or public authorities, as they were nearly all commercially naive, thick and boring.
We always wanted to talk with big clients, institutions and developers, as they sometimes had the expertise and the know-how to get jobs going, and for the most part, anyone working for organisations like the housing associations were small beer, and only just tolerated.
I'm afraid that changed later on, and the sort of chappess who worked for the Property Services Agency of the D.O.E. became someone to chase after (despite the home-spun jersey and wire-rimmed glasses), and probably Maggie eventually taught them a few home truths, which is when the rot set in.
While the Thatcher years were so fabulous for getting rid of the crust of waste on tired old fools, there were some people who suddenly realised that they were worth more if they could learn the rules.
BT was a prime example. Simple little men suddenly became fee-givers, and were told one day that they were important.
A big by-product problem was that silly architects became so self-important, that a lot of public money was pissed up against the wall, but that's another story.
Sackers - is it also a class ceiling?
Wiggia - maybe we need an inquiry into useless inquiries...
Demetrius - and will become worse.
James - it is.
Scrobs - I'm sure some good books could be written about those times, but who will write them?
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