Special advisers do good work too

The McBride affair may have a dangerous side-effect – and that is blackening the name of special advisers. I am in the minority position of wanting to see more of them in Whitehall, and here’s why. McBride’s problem was his behaviour, not his status. The current suggestion that the real problem is his SpAd status – and not the instructions from dhis master – is a clever piece of self-exculpatory spin from Brown. We should not fall for it. And it’s also an insult to the many other SpAds who do good, honest work.

I imagine many CoffeeHousers baulked at that last bit – but “good, honest spad” is not a contradiction in terms. The idea of political appointees is widespread in Western democracies (think of the staff in The West Wing), and we in Britain are unusual in having so few. As not many in the Cabinet have any expertise in their chosen field, this makes it even harder to break status quo.