Gus O’Donnell will bore anyone willing to listen about why the Civil Service is the greatest thing in the world, but his latest attempt at a power-grab should be given a wider audience. GOD wants MPs to meet “pre-qualification criteria” before being allowed to stand. Obviously this would involve GOD’s beloved mandarins. What we have here is a former civil servant so convinced of his righteousness and so native in his thinking that genuinely believes that his beloved pen-pushers are superior to the voting public. The electorate is too stupid, in his view, to elect MPs desirable to the permanent representation, so they need to be hand-held into making the right choice. Back off.

What GOD’s intervention really highlights is the need for Civil Servants to meet “pre-qualification criteria”. As Douglas Carswell points out over at the Telegraph: “Rather than Gus’s idea of civil servants vetting MPs, MPs need to hold confirmation hearings for the appointment of senior civil servants. And, indeed, ministers.” Time to remind these miniature Whitehall megalomaniacs who they really work for.