Right at the beginning of this discussion about indolence, shirking and buck-passing in the civil service, I just want to say, ‘Is everyone all right? The most important thing here is your wellbeing.’
No Whitehall meeting can get under way without first establishing the mental health of all participants, in an earnest display of empty empathy. It’s toe-curling. It is also a shocking waste of time.
But time-wasting is what the civil service has raised to the status of an art form. I spent six years in the corridors of officialdom – three years in the Department for Trade, three at Health
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