However, it is the civil servants and administrators who cause most of the problems we see. They are a protected species, almost impossible to sack, so they can fuck things up with impunity and do so on a regular basis.
But government administrators have no such problems. They can drop bollock after bollock without ever worrying about consequences because that's how it's always been.
Seems that others in the know agree with me - as does Rod Liddle in his excellent article today in the Sun, headlined:
REAL OPPOSITION TO GOVERNMENT? NOT LABOUR, IT'S THE CIVIL SERVICE!
For three long years our civil servants did everything they possibly could to prevent the UK from leaving the European Union. In other words, to thwart the will of the people - and the policies of our democratically elected Government.......
Civil service insiders report that the organisation was, almost to a man, openly hostile to Brexit....... Civil servants leaked whenever they could do to the Press. Not least the Foreign Press. And now, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, guess what? Yup, they're still doing it. Britain's top diplomat Sir Simon McDonald, one of the highest people in the public sector, has tried to shaft the Government over Brexit and the virus, He said that the Government took a 'political decision' not to join an EU effort to buy PPE and ventilators. This was WHOLLY UNTRUE, as the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, angrily made clear. McDonald - STILL SOMEHOW IN A JOB - was forced to back down. Two things. First the EU scheme has spectacularly failed to deliver ANYTHING. Indeed, the EU is coming apart at the seams over this virus. And second, the invitation to join the scheme was sent, by those EU genii, to the WRONG ADDRESS! [The EU administrators are even more stupid than ours. And that takes some doing!]
It is becoming more apparent with every day that passes that the civil service is the biggest impediment to the UK reforming itself. It is hostile to the Government, to the people - and deeply hostile to change of any kind.
IT IS A VAST CONGREGATION OF TIME-SERVING BUREAUCRATS DEDICATED ONLY TO SAVING THEIR OWN JOBS [My caps]. Even now, red tape may be stifling our efforts to deal with the coronavirus.
IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO DISCOVER, ONCE THIS PANDEMIC HAS RECEDED, WHAT PART THE CIVIL SERVICE PLAYED IN THE UKs FAILURE TO CARRY OUT TESTING FOR THE VIRUS RIGHT FROM THE START. AND THE FAILURE TO BRING IN VITAL EQUIPMENT. Government ministers carry the can for these sorts of failures, of course. BUT IT IS THE CIVIL SERVICE CHARGED WITH ENACTING THE DECISIONS. [My caps].
I wonder how many ventilators have failed to arrive here because of some bureaucratic hitch? I wonder what would have happened if the civil service, rather than the military, were charged with building those Nightingale hospitals? They might just about be ready by the end of the century!
It was clear, when this Government came to office, that the real opposition wasn't the ragged hounds and trots on the Labour benches, but FROM THE VERY PEOPLE PAID TO ENABLE THE GOVERNMENT - THE CIVIL SERVICE.
There needs to be a clear out from the top down. Because this battle - between civil servants and Government ministers - will continue long after the virus has been defeated. Their opposition to Government policy HAMPERS ALMOST EVERYTHING WE DO. That's no way to run a country.
Needless to say I'm in complete agreement with the above and we need our own 'Night of the Long Knives' to cut this cancer from our society.