Yes, Prime Minister: The Battle between Politicians and Civil Servants

1. One of the best-loved BBC comedies ever made is the 1980s series ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ The comedy is based around the never-ending battle between the Prime Minister (Jim Hacker) and his top civil servant (the stuffy Cabinet Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appelby). Westminster and Whitehall insiders say the series is amazingly accurate. Margaret Thatcher apparently never missed an episode !

2. Key terms • Bureaucracy - the administrative branch of government. • Whitehall – Whitehall is the street next to Parliament where most government departments are located. The name is synonymous with the civil service. • Whitehall red tape – lots of unnecessary paperwork ! • Mandarin- the top civil servants in Whitehall

4. Some of the grandest properties in London.

5. What is the Civil Service ?Some basic facts • Civil Servants are public servants. • There are about 500,000 in total working in government departments and agencies (food standards, vehicle licensing etc) • They are paid from public funds. • They serve whichever government wins the election. They outlast most governments. • They are not generally known to the general public nor are they elected. • They are not political and are supposed to be impartial.

6. The Senior Civil Service • About 1% of the Civil Service are known as the Senior Civil Service. • Each government department has a Permanent Secretary – the top civil servant in that department in charge of all the others. • The most senior civil servant in the country is the Cabinet Secretary who works out of Downing St.

7. What do they actually do ? • There are only a handful of Cabinet Ministers and junior ministers in a government department. • There are hundreds of civil servants who actually run the department and implement the policy set by the ministers. • Ministers do not usually stay in a department more than a couple of years. Civil servants often make life-long careers in their departments.

8. Traditional view • Impartial - civil servants are non-political. Elected ministers make decisions and non-elected civil servants carry them out. • Neutral – civil servants carry out the policies of whichever political party is in power. • Anonymous – civil servants should not seek publicity, talk to the media or leak information outside the department.

9. Monty Python poked fun at the traditional stuffy image of the bowler-hatted civil servant. John Clese in the ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’

10. The modern day civil service Since the 1969 Fulton Report the civil service has been reformed : • More outside advisors brought in to aid ministers. • Ensure a wider recruitment of talents • Bring the civil service more in line with business management. • Bring in private companies to do some of the work of the civil service. (privatisation)

11. What is the relationship between civil servants and ministers ? The ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ image of the Civil Service is that they have more power than ministers and ‘really run the country.’ How true is this image ?

12. Civil Service power vs ministerial power • The traditional view of the Civil Service is that they are impartial and serve their political masters faithfully • The left-wing view is that the Civil Service is secretive, elitist and conservative. • The ‘thatcherite’ view was the Civil Service was inefficient and wasteful and needed to be trimmed.

13. Interdependency rather than power-struggle ? • Rather than seeing the relationship as confrontational, Civil Servants and ministers need each other in order to implement policy. • The power-relationship depends very much on the people in the job at the time.

14. Tasks • Why have higher civil servants often been criticised? Read 242-3 • What do the tables on p247 suggest about the relative powers of ministers and civil servants? • What factors determine whether a minister resigns or not after a serious blunder or misjudgement? • Write a comparison of who had the greatest impact on reforming the Civil Service – Thatcher or New Labour (252-255)

15. Special Advisers • Ministers have tried to by-pass their civil servants by employing ‘special advisers’ from outside the department. • Their role is controversial due to their lack of accountability.

16. The Jo Moore affair Secretary of State for Transport was forced to dismiss his special adviser Jo Moore in 2002. She was too controversial and disliked by the civil servants in his department. She had sent an e mail on September 11th 2001 suggesting this was “a good day to bury bad news.”

18. Questions for Debate • What is the difference between a civil servant and a special adviser ? • What is the expected code of behaviour for civil servants ? Do they stick to it ? • Why do some ministers prefer to listen to their special advisers ?

20. What are quangos ? • What is a quango ? • Why has there been an increase in the number of quangos in recent years ? • Are quangos a threat to democratic and open government ?

21. Past exam questionsChoose one title • What should be the relationship between a minister and his or her civil servants? • “The Cabinet’s role in decision making has been marginalised in recent governments” Discuss • How accurate is the claim that “the Prime Minister, although under personal and political constraints, largely controls the cabinet” ? (2005) • ‘Permanent, politically neutral and anonymous.’ How far does the UK civil service still reflect these key features ? (2006) • Discuss the view that modern British prime Ministers are not too strong, but too weak. (2006) • ‘Neither “prime ministerial government” nor “cabinet government” accurately describes the distribution of power within the cabinet system.’ Discuss (2007)