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Every couple of months we ask subscribers to send us questions. You can (ideally) post them in the comments below or, if you want to stay anonymous, email us (samf@substack.com). We’ll do a post next week with our answers.
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The reinvigoration of the democrats in the US has been fascinating to watch. It feels like the ‘when they go low, we go high’ tone of the Obamas has been replaced by something rougher, tougher, more honest perhaps, and more exciting - and the country (or at least some of it!) is ready for it. Harris and Walz (and Shapiro, Buttigieg, AOC etc) make Keir Starmer seem very dull. Are there equivalent people in UK politics hiding in the wings that we don’t know about that might emerge over the next few years…? And if not, why not?
Dear Sam, I served in the Inland Revenue (IHT) 1977-2012. When I joined, the Board of IR (now HMRC) was made up entirely of career civil servants (admittedly all male) who worked their way up and thoroughly knew their business. In the early 2000's it was decided to bring in some outsiders to add wider expertise - probably not a bad idea. Now, the Board contains only one tax professional hence the appalling problems faced by David Hartnett over the Google / Amazon scandals (if they were) before the PAC a few years ago. From the report on the Prison Service I suspect this is replicated across the Public Sector ie the Sector is largely run not by career technicians by careerists who possess no expertise in their field or interest in the organisations they 'serve' but bounce around getting gongs and cash for 'performance'. Is this indeed the case and if so does the Civil Service require radical reform to get it back on track?