It is completely unacceptable that Whitehall has been politicised through radical ideology
Not much has changed since Disraeli labelled the British state a “ponderous and expensive system… without business habits, or any knowledge whatever of the details required”. Since his pertinent words, spoken in 1852, Whitehall remains as ponderous and expensive, almost immune to reform and ungovernable by mere politicians.
Part of the problem is the “woke” culture that has entered the soul of the Civil Service. This is wrapped up in the buzzwords of “diversity and inclusion”, which ironically seek to exclude and marginalise those who do not subscribe to politically correct views.
Revelations from The Daily Telegraph show the extraordinary scale of this radical ideology in Whitehall, and must spur action from the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and ultimately the Prime Minister. It is completely unacceptable that the Civil Service has been politicised in this way, and represents a major drag on government resources that should be focused on delivering for the public.
When I was in the Cabinet Office our team reviewed training courses available to civil servants partly because we wanted performance-related pay. It seemed sensible that those who did courses that helped them improve the service they delivered and became more productive would be paid more. In some parts of the machine this already happened. Unfortunately, many of the available programmes were under the woolly title of “leadership” or “diversity and inclusion” and sought to teach things that are tendentious at least and political at worst. To protect the core value of the Civil Service, impartiality, the Cabinet Office decided to begin withdrawing these courses.