The Civil Service = the Blob.

[T00ts]

Our daughter is a SCS and she's brilliant, of course!
However, what of these so called mandarins? Is it true they don't have the skills? If not, what on earth have they been recruiting and promoting?
Are Britain's brightest and best not good enough, or are they not the brightest and best, but the politically correct?

I don't know the answers.

I think they are bright but their experience is in the Classics, history law and arts. When my daughter and her husband were at Uni as  chemists they were headhunted into a new course 'Chemistry with Law'. There were only 11 of them. Until then the majority who went into law were into English etc but their Uni realised that lawyers would need an understanding of forensics etc so created the new course. I think the same is possibly true of those who would now be termed 'Mandarins'. I think we all know that it is very much an old boys system in Whitehall and promotion is into dead men's shoes and it is fairly common knowledge I would have thought, that they drag their heels when it comes to change. Dom Cummings was onto it I believe and ruffled feathers.

[HallowedBrexit]

A lot of the problems in our civil service I would put down personally to the influence of Meghan Markle and the other wokies. How are we supposed to weed out the bad plants when we have enemies and remoaners in our own ranks?

What we now need to do is vote for the Tories so they can clear out this debacle that is mostly down to the legacy of Tony Blair.

[Barry]

Our daughter is a SCS and she's brilliant, of course!
However, what of these so called mandarins? Is it true they don't have the skills? If not, what on earth have they been recruiting and promoting?
Are Britain's brightest and best not good enough, or are they not the brightest and best, but the politically correct?

I don't know the answers.

[T00ts]

So at last the Civil Service starts to break ranks and agree that Whitehall has a problem. This thread was started not as a comparison of vaccine prices between us and the EU but a critique of the Civil Service here.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10245737/Civil-Service-chief-Simon-Case-says-AGREES-vaccines-tsar-Kate-Binghams-Whitehall-criticism.html

[johnofgwent]

I thought that British did quite well by working on the principle that people were more important than pounds, so paid over the odds but ended with all the vaccine needed. Meanwhile that shrewd business woman Mrs leyen got f**k all, but at an excellent price.

I thought she got f**k all at roughly the same price we paid.

At least, that's what Reuters claimed after onecMEP crowed they'd done a better deal than us and it all went tits up ...

Don't get the wrong idea here, there was so much BS being flung when Andrea the Dodgy got hit by the fan flung shit I may be tumping on the wrong bandwagon, but there is something singularly delightful in hearing Ng the EU were actually offering roughly what we were, to the point economies of scale might even make some price difference justified, and STILL got short changed !

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/eu-paying-full-price-astrazeneca-172357823.html

[T00ts]

So you reckon that come the next out break of this flu thingy we should do a Mrs Leyen and count pennies rather than the corpses? I am not sure that I don't agree with you, but as I recall your original premises was that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! Well, it has been done. Sackloads of cash were thrown at the problem. It probably didn't make any difference but did not seem to bother you at the time. But now the bills have started to come in you are moaning about the cost.

What gave you that conclusion? We must be at cross purposes. My feeling is that the CS is not and hasn't been for some time fit for purpose. The debacle over the snail pace responses to anything let alone Covid holds the entire country back. It was shown up over Brexit very clearly when it was openly admitted that most of them were anti and acted accordingly as Ministers tried and still try to drag them into the 21st Century. They are set in their ways and function not to serve the Government of the day but to maintain the status quo.

[Borchester]

But it wasn't the mandarins of Whitehall who achieved this it was Kate Bingham who was shipped in and dragged Whitehall behind her. The point being that they have learned nothing from the exercise and are steadily sinking back into their comfort zone. If it comes to another pandemic we will be just as ill prepared. They are simply not geared up to act with speed or decisiveness. Cummings knew this as have plenty of others over the years. He was a threat to the status quo so had to be pushed.

So you reckon that come the next out break of this flu thingy we should do a Mrs Leyen and count pennies rather than the corpses? I am not sure that I don't agree with you, but as I recall your original premises was that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! Well, it has been done. Sackloads of cash were thrown at the problem. It probably didn't make any difference but did not seem to bother you at the time. But now the bills have started to come in you are moaning about the cost.

[T00ts]

I thought that British did quite well by working on the principle that people were more important than pounds, so paid over the odds but ended with all the vaccine needed. Meanwhile that shrewd business woman Mrs leyen got f**k all, but at an excellent price.

But it wasn't the mandarins of Whitehall who achieved this it was Kate Bingham who was shipped in and dragged Whitehall behind her. The point being that they have learned nothing from the exercise and are steadily sinking back into their comfort zone. If it comes to another pandemic we will be just as ill prepared. They are simply not geared up to act with speed or decisiveness. Cummings knew this as have plenty of others over the years. He was a threat to the status quo so had to be pushed.

[Borchester]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10237981/Ex-vaccine-tsar-Treat-pandemics-seriously-defence-threats.html

I have long felt that a large part of the problem in this country resides behind closed doors in Whitehall. Now the person acclaimed for her handling of the Vaccine purchasing success tells us that 'the Blob' is fast reverting to type and closing ranks while being totally unsuitable in terms of expertise or knowledge to be able to handle very much in this highly technical world. Degrees in the classics etc no longer give us a working edge.
Dominic Cummings knew this and was proactive in attempting to drag this monolithic organisation kicking and screaming into the 21st century where we need scientists and IT whizz kids to challenge our highly technical world. They are too easily mentally mugged into believing that vastly expensive projects are fit for purpose, that's if they ever reach a decision in the first place. We are too slow, too hung up on risk and not sufficiently mentally agile to take on the world. While in the EU they were lulled into a sleep zone where there was no real need to take the lead. They are mired in grafting to resist change rather than grafting for us their paymasters.

They would never survive individually or as a unit in the private sector.

I thought that British did quite well by working on the principle that people were more important than pounds, so paid over the odds but ended with all the vaccine needed. Meanwhile that shrewd business woman Mrs leyen got F@@@ all, but at an excellent price.

[T00ts]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10237981/Ex-vaccine-tsar-Treat-pandemics-seriously-defence-threats.html

I have long felt that a large part of the problem in this country resides behind closed doors in Whitehall. Now the person acclaimed for her handling of the Vaccine purchasing success tells us that 'the Blob' is fast reverting to type and closing ranks while being totally unsuitable in terms of expertise or knowledge to be able to handle very much in this highly technical world. Degrees in the classics etc no longer give us a working edge.
Dominic Cummings knew this and was proactive in attempting to drag this monolithic organisation kicking and screaming into the 21st century where we need scientists and IT whizz kids to challenge our highly technical world. They are too easily mentally mugged into believing that vastly expensive projects are fit for purpose, that's if they ever reach a decision in the first place. We are too slow, too hung up on risk and not sufficiently mentally agile to take on the world. While in the EU they were lulled into a sleep zone where there was no real need to take the lead. They are mired in grafting to resist change rather than grafting for us their paymasters. 

They would never survive individually or as a unit in the private sector.