I recently recommended Ben Yong’s 16 October UCL lecture about the civil service’s constitutional foundations and how it might respond to a populist government.
Thank you Martin, but first question to address is "What is Democracy?". In my opinion, in the UK, we sure as heck don't have it now, and haven't had it since the Brexit referendum - and many politicians and civil servants attempted (successfully) to thwart the will of the people.
We are currently _ruled_ by overseers chosen by 20% of the electorate; 40% of the electorate chose to not vote for "any of the above", and those overseers have limited power despite Brexit because many public service functions have been devolved to quangos with almost zero democratic engagement or mandate.
I ain't going to vote for Reform or any other party which "whips" its MPs, unless they are committing to implement a robust form of "Direct Democracy", because the simple reality is that the UK does not currently have a form of government which can properly be described as Democracy. End of.
I wouldn't put it as strongly as you do, but I do have some sympathy for your views.
My introduction to *How to Succeed in the Senior Civil Service* includes this advice:
It's worth remembering, too, that only 20.2% of eligible voters voted for Labour MPs in the 2024 'landslide'. You may find that your ministers and Spads need to be gently reminded that the other 80% might be slightly less receptive to their policies than they might assume.
Good to see you pointing this out to Senior CS officers & aspirants, but even those few MPs elected by a majority would mostly not qualify to have been democratically elected...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Section 21.1 sayeth:-
"Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives."
but since the introduction of Party Approved Candidate Lists we cannot even say that the representatives on the ballot paper are "freely chosen" by the electorate. The whole system is corrupt, and has been intentionally progressively corrupted to erode the ability of the populace to express their wishes for the nation - hence the increasingly evident public dissatisfaction with and disengagement from UK politics. IF we get a Populist "Transform" gov't (pref. not "Reform") in the future it may be that in cooperating with and enabling that Gov't the CS can actively contribute towards a more harmonious and engaged relationship between the populace and government.
Thank you Martin, but first question to address is "What is Democracy?". In my opinion, in the UK, we sure as heck don't have it now, and haven't had it since the Brexit referendum - and many politicians and civil servants attempted (successfully) to thwart the will of the people.
We are currently _ruled_ by overseers chosen by 20% of the electorate; 40% of the electorate chose to not vote for "any of the above", and those overseers have limited power despite Brexit because many public service functions have been devolved to quangos with almost zero democratic engagement or mandate.
I ain't going to vote for Reform or any other party which "whips" its MPs, unless they are committing to implement a robust form of "Direct Democracy", because the simple reality is that the UK does not currently have a form of government which can properly be described as Democracy. End of.
I wouldn't put it as strongly as you do, but I do have some sympathy for your views.
My introduction to *How to Succeed in the Senior Civil Service* includes this advice:
It's worth remembering, too, that only 20.2% of eligible voters voted for Labour MPs in the 2024 'landslide'. You may find that your ministers and Spads need to be gently reminded that the other 80% might be slightly less receptive to their policies than they might assume.
Good to see you pointing this out to Senior CS officers & aspirants, but even those few MPs elected by a majority would mostly not qualify to have been democratically elected...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Section 21.1 sayeth:-
"Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives."
but since the introduction of Party Approved Candidate Lists we cannot even say that the representatives on the ballot paper are "freely chosen" by the electorate. The whole system is corrupt, and has been intentionally progressively corrupted to erode the ability of the populace to express their wishes for the nation - hence the increasingly evident public dissatisfaction with and disengagement from UK politics. IF we get a Populist "Transform" gov't (pref. not "Reform") in the future it may be that in cooperating with and enabling that Gov't the CS can actively contribute towards a more harmonious and engaged relationship between the populace and government.