THE CIVIL SERVICE WHITE PAPER: A JOB HALF FINISHED.

This article discusses the impact of the British government's White Paper "The Civil Service: Continuity and Change" to the civil service. Generally, the bulk of civil service is good on detail as well as principle. The White Paper also brings out how far ahead the people get in terms of making things actually happen as compared to the rest of the world. For the White Paper really does split into two parts, and it is ironical and perhaps revealing that the much better bit is all about the great bulk of the civil service which is undoubtedly getting better, while the inferior bit that in fact contemplates no change at all is all about the senior open structure which is so letting British citizens down. And for this there is a simple reason. For the great bulk of the civil service there is discussion about what they are there for, or at least provision for such discussion with a sensible underpinning assumption that if there is no job for them to do they should not be there. For the Senior Civil Service the reverse is true that no such discussion and the apparent assumption that whether or not there is a job for them to do they must carry on.