Civil servants' leader attacks 'utterly dysfunctional' government
God, even the Civil Service can barely function with this utterly useless mong as PM.
Gordon Brown's government has become "utterly dysfunctional" and needs a major reorganisation to prevent looming spending cuts shackling any future administration, according to the man who represents the most senior civil servants in Whitehall. In a damning critique of the Brown years, Jonathan Baume, head of the FDA union, claimed there was gridlock at the heart of government, with mandarins meeting indecision in Downing Street, ministers who have "given up", and a culture of "government by announcement".
"We've got to learn from this," he said. "At the moment No 10 is seen as a blockage. There's almost a mood where civil servants try to keep No 10 out because you can't get clear decisions. It's not sustainable in the longer term. The next government has got to work more clearly, it's got to take decisions at the centre, because you don't have that now.
"The dysfunction is partly political and partly organisational. No one is clear how the Treasury, the prime minister's office and the Cabinet Office actually loop together and come up with a coherent policy initiative. When Gordon Brown became prime minister no clear direction ever emerged from him." Pressure has grown on the government – and the opposition – to declare how they will achieve the major cuts needed to reduce public debt. Steve Bundred, head of the Audit Commission, warned this week that spending cuts would be the toughest in a lifetime and that it would be "insane" to protect schools and hospitals when they have been most generously funded in recent years.
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"We've got to learn from this," he said. "At the moment No 10 is seen as a blockage. There's almost a mood where civil servants try to keep No 10 out because you can't get clear decisions. It's not sustainable in the longer term. The next government has got to work more clearly, it's got to take decisions at the centre, because you don't have that now.
"The dysfunction is partly political and partly organisational. No one is clear how the Treasury, the prime minister's office and the Cabinet Office actually loop together and come up with a coherent policy initiative. When Gordon Brown became prime minister no clear direction ever emerged from him." Pressure has grown on the government – and the opposition – to declare how they will achieve the major cuts needed to reduce public debt. Steve Bundred, head of the Audit Commission, warned this week that spending cuts would be the toughest in a lifetime and that it would be "insane" to protect schools and hospitals when they have been most generously funded in recent years.
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