Hell froze over in the past twenty-four hours as Labour pivoted towards reforming its permanent bureaucratic wing, otherwise known as the civil service. After years defending the bloated state, and working hand in hand with civil service trade unions, Labour now wants to wield the axe in Whitehall…
Starmer’s key ally Pat McFadden said he wanted “radical” civil service reform including digitisation and performance targets (both of which have been commonplace in the private sector for many decades). The government is trailing an announcement that could see useless officials effectively paid off to leave their roles and introduce performance-related pay for the senior civil service. Sounds good to Guido…
McFadden also said there was “value to being in the office” and it was “generally a good thing”. Tell that to Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was relentlessly attacked by Labour when he left notes on the desks of absent ‘working from home’ civil servants back in 2022. Back then, McFadden’s Cabinet colleague Jonathan Reynolds called Rees-Mogg’s intervention “bizarre”. Labour ally Dave Penman, then the general secretary of the FDA union, said it was: ““the most crass, condescending act I’ve seen from a minister”. How times change…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”