Tursiops
Thursday 3rd July 2008 6:06pm [Edited]
Welwyn Garden City
9,788 posts
Yes Minister was very funny and to a point truthful, but it as had an unfortunate legacy. This was a series that changed the way people thought about politicians and civil servants, and changed the way politicians thought about civil servants. As Adam Curtis pointed out in The Trap, and as Anthony Jay has himself confirmed, the series was propaganda for public choice economics. The idea promoted by the series was that both politicians and civil servants acted solely in their own self-interest, and that disinterested public service is a myth. Obviously there is some truth that no-one is entirely blind to their own self-interest, but integrity and a sense of duty do exist. This was denied by the proponents of public choice economics, who promoted the culture of measurable targets and financial incentives that has dominated public life over the past twenty years, with disastrous results. It has also promoted the myth that civil servants are deliberately obstructive rather than objective in pointing out potential pitfalls based on past experience, a myth bought into by Tony Blair in his "scars on my back' speech. The result is that the traditional role of the civil service of "speaking truth unto power" has been replaced by a can-do culture, in which the way to get on is to tell ministers what they want to hear. Officials know that flagship policies are bound to failure, but anyone who speaks out is off-message and has his card marked.