Friday 8 March 2013

Welsh Sir Humphrey crosses the line?


It could be that its the way BBC reported it . Because  the news that  the senior Welsh Civil servant,
Permanent secretary Derek Jones may have been criticising the Welsh Assembly Government when he said wanted an organisation that was "restless" to do better.

Mr Jones heads the 5,000-strong civil service in Wales responsible for carrying out ministers' policies.

Public spending cuts have reduced numbers by a fifth, and the financial climate has had an effect, he said.


Speaking in a rare interview, he told BBC Wales:

"I think particularly over the period of austerity budgeting, there's been a tendency to lock things down, and good intentions to be prudent with public money.
"But I think it has also had the effect of hampering some of our decisiveness, and I want managers to manage and take responsibility for their decisions."
A number of controls had already been removed aimed at making the government more decisive and agile, he added.

It  could well be that he was referring the Civil Service  rather than the Assembly Government. but it does look at at the very least a veiled statement that Ministers need to do better.

I havent sen the new series of Yes Prime  Minister but I can't imagine  Sir Humphrey Appleby  or his real  life counterparts at Westminster talking about either the Civil Service or the Goverment in such a fashion to the media. At least not whilst still in the Job.

It does lok that Senior Civil Servants still regard the Assembly as bit of a upstart.

Normally I would welcome criticism of Carwyn and his gang . But would someone like Dereck Jones have criticised Westminster Department  in such a manner?

If I was Carwyn Jones I would cal in Mr Jones and remind him that he advises on policybut its not him in the driving seat  and his role his to anonymously carry  his duties

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Derek Jones has obviously said this to Minister's in private and probably got Carwyn's permission to say what he did to the press.

He has more credibility than welsh politicians to state the obvious and besides his predecessors Gillian Morgan and Sir John Shortridge were no strangers to the odd media appearance.