UNITED KINGDOM
The row over a controversial United Kingdom Public Service ‘recruiting blog’ continues with leading Whitehall figures, including a former Cabinet Secretary, a former Civil Service Commissioner and a former head of the Public Service raising concerns.
The blog, by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Senior Adviser, Dominic Cummings (pictured), called for “super-talented weirdos” with “genuine cognitive diversity” to apply and said people with “English degrees from Oxford and Cambridge” universities would not be considered.
“We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole,” Mr Cumming wrote.
While Mr Johnson’s office has partially backed away from the email, saying all applicants would be subject to normal Public Service vetting, the former officials said the blog set out “outdated views on the Civil Service and risks alienating officers”.
Former head of the Public Service, Lord O’Donnell said anyone who cared about good Government would agree there was room for improvement in the Public Service.
However, he said Mr Johnson should be very careful about trashing his workforce – an approach that rarely raised productivity.
The UK’s first Civil Service Commissioner, Sir David Normington said successful reform would depend on building support across Government, not alienating key players within it.
“The underlying denigration of [Oxford and Cambridge humanities graduates] is unhelpful, really, because it diverts attention from the interesting ideas Cummings has,” Sir David said.
He said Mr Cummings would not be not be able to change Whitehall “without lots of allies,” and said that unless he built support for his ideas among Secretaries of State and their top Public Servants he would struggle to deliver reforms.
London, 10 January 2020
