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Wednesday 9 July 2008

The Spectator’s notes

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

If Boris Johnson wins the contest to become Mayor of London on 1 May, he will not inherit an impartial civil service of the sort to which British national politicians are accustomed. There has only been one Mayor of London so far and he, Ken Livingstone, has made sure that London officials reflect his views. So if Boris wins, he will immediately be confronted by the politically motivated hostility of the bureaucracy. It is good to know that he promises to deal with this, less good to hear that he proposes to keep on leading figures like the commissioner of Transport for London, Peter Hendy. The left-wing Mr Hendy is the author of the unloved ‘bendy’ buses, and fires off splenetic letters if anyone dares to criticise the abolition of the much-loved Routemaster. In one of these, he made clear his politics by attacking the Conservatives over transport and praising the ‘progressive Mayor’ (Ken). He is one of those annoying people who wish to be prolier-than-thou — talking about how he used to be a bus conductor, although he is a university graduate, the grandson of an hereditary peer, and the £3.8 million beneficiary of a bus company privatisation. He has had it all his own way in the Ken years, and will not take kindly to Tory rule. If it happens, the Boris mayoralty will be studied as the model for how the Tories will govern big cities. Boris’s toughness or weakness about appointments will shape that model within his first week in City Hall.

A Whitehall mole sends me a bold email by Jonathan Baume, the general secretary of the First Division Association, the trade union of the top civil servants, to his members. Mr Baume complains about the jargon, meaninglessness and disregard for practical administrative experience now rife in government. He quotes the following job advertisement placed in the Sunday Times at the beginning of the year by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. It is for an ‘Enterprise Architect’: ‘You’ll be the Department’s chief architect, responsible for making sure that all enterprise architect activities are performed properly. The aim is to optimise our business success, by making sure that only DCSF strategies and relevant trends inform our processes and systems. In fact, you’ll define the entire enterprise architecture process across the Department, ensuring it is well integrated with other related business processes. For this, you’ll need considerable expertise in at least two information and technology disciplines in a multi-tier environment. Alternatively, you could be an authority on business analysis or strategic planning. Either way, you’ll be a respected leader with in-depth knowledge of holistic enterprise architecture; business re-engineering principles and processes; and the politics involved.’ Ah yes, ‘the politics involved’.

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