How Cameron should reshape the machinery of government
Daniel Korski 6:46pm
With the Conservatives ahead in the polls, David Cameron must be using the summer break thinking of whom to place around the Cabinet table. But he would do well to also think of what ministerial portfolios should exist at all.
Prime Ministers have the greatest leeway to reshape the government's machinery upon taking office. Then it gets trickier as voters expect results, not tinkering with bureaucratic arrangements. A number of institutional changes are both needed and politically expedient.
First, a Tory government should create a new Cabinet-level Secretary of State for Veteran Affairs – with a department underneath – appointing a senior politician, or perhaps a former 4* soldier like General Charles Guthrie to run all veteran-related affairs.
Nothing would signal as powerfully that a new government wants Britain's veterans to be taken care of. The new Veterans Secretary could then be tasked to draft a new Veterans Bill for the government's first Queens Speech laying out a new approach to ex-combattants.
Second, a Prime Minister Cameron should create a Secretary of State for Climate Change If an election comes before the Copenhagen Climate Conference, then this is an obvious priority for a new Climate Secretary.
Once climate has been elevated to a Cabinet-level position, the rest of the current department, i.e. Food and Rural Affairs, should be merged with the Department for Communities and Local Government. The new Department for Local Affairs could be run by someone who can advance the Tory’s decentralisation agenda.
Then there is DfiD. It will be too unpopular - and counterproductive - to merge the department back into the FCO. But steps need to be taken to ensure greater collaboration between DfiD and the military. A Tory government should re-draft the International Development Act, establishing a Department for International Development and Stabilisation and appoint someone to run it who can balance Britain's commitment to poverty-alleviation with the need to advance the country's strategic interests and work with the Armed Forces.
Finally, with a commitment to establish a US-style National Security Council, a Tory government will need to think through how it wants to change the centre of government. Now Dame Pauline Neville-Jones shadows Lord Alan West but the job of a National Security Adviser is different. And there is precious little detail of how a Prime Minister Cameron would want to run security policy.
The commitment to restore Cabinet government not only sits uneasily with a directive NSC but it underplays the problems the Cabinet system and the Civil Service face in dealing with today's complex, cross-cutting security challenges. In other words, much thinking to fill a holiday with - before even getting down to the who-sits-where question that usually dominates Westminster politics.
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Comments
Murray
July 31st, 2008 7:00pmA secretary of state for climate change!!!!!!! Are you mad? Global warming ended in 1998, do try and keep up.
TGF UKIP
July 31st, 2008 7:01pmFrom the emphasis on climate change could I guess that Daniel Korski is your new intern?
GeoffH
July 31st, 2008 7:02pm"Second, a Prime Minister Cameron should create a Secretary of State for Climate Change "
Please, pretty please, let's have none of this posturing. These fads must be ignored.
Chris B
July 31st, 2008 7:17pmis this a spoof?
bta
July 31st, 2008 7:19pmGet a grip.
We don't need more of these numpties, we need fewer.
oldtimer
July 31st, 2008 7:33pmTwaddle
e.g.
July 31st, 2008 7:37pmHow about reducing the numbers of MPs, making the Statistics Office independent and stopping pre-release, formalising previous conventions such as no retrospective legislation and depoliticise the Civil Service?
Max
July 31st, 2008 7:37pmCreate a minister for Global Cooling and he/she might have something to do.
Starting with our gas bills....
Max
Martin
July 31st, 2008 7:39pmIs this post some kind of joke? A Secretary of State for Climate Change? Oh my God!
Daniel1979
July 31st, 2008 7:39pmThis is surely a joke?
john williams
July 31st, 2008 7:47pmA secretary for climate change is not needed. It's going to be decades before the cooling of the earth becomes a problem.
Francis
July 31st, 2008 7:50pmI am as sceptical as other commentors.
How about restoring the positions of Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor and getting rid of the ministry of justice or whatever its Orwellian-esque name is.
Also change Ed Balls' department back to education from whatever it is called.
Maybe its time to have a First Lord of the Admiralty again too.
Doug
July 31st, 2008 7:53pmSecretary of state for Climate Change would be a good move whatever the deniers say.
I oppose merging Rural Affairs/agriculture. Rural affairs and agriculture is a disaster and needs to be given more prominence not less.
Chuck Unsworth
July 31st, 2008 7:53pmAbsolute garbage. It's really not necessary to play the NuLab game of pandering to fashion by making new Ministries. What most people want is a return to old-fashioned values of decency and honour, for the Government to get its hands off, for people to be treated like rational adults, for and end to all this social experimenting and for real competence amongst the (far fewer) members of the Cabinet.
The best thing Cameron could do would be to take a very sharp axe to these Ministries and the plethora of quangos etc etc. It would free up some of our cash, too. Government interference, control and manipulation is at utterly deplorable levels.
candida
July 31st, 2008 7:57pmThe best thing Cameron could do is to declare that he will spend not a penny on new logos, letterheads, or brass plates. Appoint the right people to the existing departments (and by all means tear a few down)
Ben Gardiner
July 31st, 2008 8:02pmA better suggestion would be a Secretary of State for Science whose job it would be to expose AGW for the claptrap any Spectator blogger with half a brain can see it is.
jsfl
July 31st, 2008 8:03pmDepartment of Climate Change - hahahahaha - did he get that from 'Yes Minister'?
Truly amazing
Rex Burr
July 31st, 2008 8:08pmChris B. My thought also.
Making a serious attempt to meet the 60% or 80% Co2 reductions, to comply with some agreement, will be political suicide. It cannot be done in the medium term and probably isn't necessary.
The emphasis by Daniel on military matters could will not go down well with those who are struggling to pay their way to the end of each month.
Cameron must FIRST establish an economic policy that can cope with globalisation and that gives housing the status of places that people live in and not that of counters on a monopoly board.
Mark Heenan
July 31st, 2008 8:09pmA cabinet minister for Veteran Affairs? I think Minister of State would be quite sufficient. There's only so many seats round the cabinet table...
Also I like Dizzy's idea (I think it's his) of having a dedicated (and suitably qualified) Minister in charge of IT procurement. This could be the single largest measure to curb and cut Government waste.
alan scott
July 31st, 2008 8:12pmIs this some sort of stalking climate horse? Get real, SOON.
Chris Horne
July 31st, 2008 8:16pmDaniel Korski must be in total la-la land. Who is this idiot?
First - climate change. Agree with all the above comments!
Second - the suggestion to destroy the agricultural bit of DEFRA, just when food security and the need to promote productive agriculture has risen high up the agenda.
Please Spectator, don't let your quality fall this low again.
Burton
July 31st, 2008 8:21pmFar too many Cabinet types already. We need fewer people but doing more effective roles.
A serious Defence Secretary could look after veterans seriously.
Marian C
July 31st, 2008 8:24pm"Now Dame Pauline Neville-Jones shadows Lord Alan West but the job of a National Security Adviser is different"
Who the hell writes like this!!! Sounds like a load of rot to me.
Chris B; is this a spoof?
I suspect Chris that you could be right.
Martin
July 31st, 2008 8:33pmDoug...Whatever do you mean by the term..Deniers? The specific reasons causing a so called Climate Change are not known for certain and probably never will be...Please keep an open and inquiring mind.
Travis Bickle
July 31st, 2008 8:43pmBen Gardiner, slight flaw there though - they'd probably fill the post with one of these scientists who think we should wear those thick shetland jumpers look trendy in homage to the great god of (dangerous) climate change)
mitch
July 31st, 2008 8:50pmDepartment of Climate Change ha ha can we have silly walks too?
get a grip.
John Page
July 31st, 2008 9:01pmI too assumed it was a joke. Not worth a detailed critique.
Dave B
July 31st, 2008 9:19pm"But he would do well to also think of what ministerial portfolios should exist at all."
Agree with that.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport? Can't see the need.
Department for Communities and local government? Close it.
DTi? DfiD?
http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/2008/03/axing-beast.html
Liz Upton
July 31st, 2008 9:30pmClimate change? Secretary of State? Individually, the words might be meaningful, but when you make a sentence out of them, it sounds...a bit silly.
It's a shame that the Mercer affair went the way it did. If you're going to insist on a Veterans' Secretary (a shame ex-Gurkhas can't stand for office), he'd have been an excellent choice, but given how he was treated last year I would be surprised to see him agree to take up such a post, or to see the party endorsing him.
Forlornehope
July 31st, 2008 9:35pmThe science behind climate change is quite simple. Why is it that Spectator comment writers just don't get it? Maggie did, but of course she actually knew some chemistry!
Tiberius
July 31st, 2008 9:37pmA Minister For Getting Non-Muslim British Women's Birth Rate Over 2.1 would be a good idea.
James Forsyth
July 31st, 2008 9:38pmTGF, Daniel is actually a former MOD civil servant who has worked in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Familiar Clown
July 31st, 2008 10:23pmA Sectretary of State for Climate Change is neither needed, or politically expedient.
BTW, where's Water these days? On Mars?
dilys
July 31st, 2008 10:24pmWe need a Sec of State for Obesity or whichever hobgoblin the goverment want to frighten us with next.
DJT
July 31st, 2008 10:38pmHere's a radical idea - instead of proliferating ministries, reduce them...perhaps to about 10. It would be a potent symbol of creating a smaller state...
CD
July 31st, 2008 11:08pmBen Wallace, MP, would be a natural fit for a Secretary of State for Veteran Affairs position.
TGF UKIP
July 31st, 2008 11:53pmJames, explains a lot about the MOD and the state of the Armed Forces.
wrinkled weasel
July 31st, 2008 11:57pmIt seems I am not the only one who thinks that the article is satirical. Of course it is. Secretary of State for Climate Change? Merge DfiD with the Military. 'e's avin' a larf.
Verity
August 1st, 2008 12:19amCandida, good on you, girl! Dave B and Elizabeth, also agree.
Also, how about we restore the hereditaries to the HofL, who had loyalty only to our country and conserving it? As Labour had a cull of the hereditaries, the Tories should have a cull of the lifers. Let them keep their titles (although have the word Life in front of it, as in Life Baroness Jay. Life Baroness Scotland, etc) but remove their voting privileges. The hereditaries are natural conservators and God knows, that is what we need in a Britain that has been in the hands of the destructive, vicious socialists with their wrecking ball for the past 11 years.
I also agree that the number of MPs should be slashed. As most legislation (at their will, not ours) is shat out of Brussels, having in excess of 600 MPs with little to do but think of "make-work" projects is counter-productive for us.
Now's the time to make the HoC thinner and sleeker. So much more agile for when we see our chance to jump out of the EUSSR.
The Ministry of Defence should obviously take care of our veteran affairs.
On the other hand, how about a new new Ministry for Repatriation?
unreliable narrator
August 1st, 2008 12:40amThis must be a spoof. Korski's a brand of vodka. Why would a Veteran Affairs Minister need to be at Cabinet Level?
As for Climate Chamge didn't that used to be called Global warming ten years ago...after which it stopped warming?
This would be about creating a government to generate good headlines for a day. Blair was a master of this but limited it to policy announcements not government ministers & besides Blair could pull it off. It's like riding a unicycle, tricky but doesn't actually get you very far.
Archie
August 1st, 2008 3:04amFrancis: spot on and well said, sir!
Patrick, London
August 1st, 2008 6:08amAs per the Coffee House Wall discussion I kicked off a couple of weeks age - I definitely think we need a cabinet level Energy minister.
But 'climate change'? Go back to your playpen.
Hysteria
August 1st, 2008 6:49amI think this article is meant to be satirical - right?
LSS
August 1st, 2008 8:33amMinister for Climate Change... that's just rebranding the job of Court Jester.
Captain Coma
August 1st, 2008 9:10amCivil servant, eh? No wonder he thinks more gov depts are the solution!
Re: Climate change - "By the time something is the big idea it's no longer the best idea" - Hayek
Emil
August 1st, 2008 10:06amMinister for Climate Change, nah.. think radical, how about
Witchfinder General
After all in this new religion sceptics deserve to be burnt at the stake don't they? (providing appropriate emissions trading measures are taken of course, although even better could always ship a job lot to the rainforests being burned for Biofuel production)
Frank Pulley
August 1st, 2008 11:33amWTF is Daniel Korski? And the "W" in that question can be either "Who" or "What" - take your pick.
Frank Pulley
August 1st, 2008 11:41amI've just answered my own question:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/danielkorski
I gather this blog is now becoming a haven for the Gruniad's stray dogs? Curiouser and curiouser ...
Ian C
August 1st, 2008 2:41pmA bureaucrats answer to ensuring jobs for more bureaucrats. Pleeease.... somebody save us from these people.
Dr. Philip Stott for Minister of Climate change would be the only acceptable option.
Phil A
August 1st, 2008 6:07pm"a Secretary of State for Climate Affairs"
Who, like every "Department of Climate Change" in this country and elsewhere would promptly spend all his time justifying his own existence with funding of endless attempts to prophecy even greater imaginary climate doom (take a look at Hansen's original predictions for where we'd be today - they're incredibly over-pessimistic).
Aren't we wasting enough public money getting the NHS to pay millions to the oil companies for carbon credits? What moron dreamt that one up? (Whoever they were, I bet they too think we need a Minister for Climate Change!)