A pattern is emerging on the government’s treatment of its employees, particularly women.
Last year, Sonia Khan, the communications adviser to Sajid Javid, was unceremoniously marched out of No 10 by a police officer. Her “crime” was apparently to have communicated with a former political adviser to Philip Hammond. Javid showed a spinelessness in refusing to back her.
This year, the former Tory MP Claire Perry O’Neill was appointed chair of COP 26, but fell foul of the Johnson-Cummings junta, apparently for “a lack of gravitas” (Report, 1 February). Details about what this ex-minister is alleged to have done are still unclear. It was not just a dismissal; she was humiliated in the weekend press.
In between these events, Dominic Cummings put out an advert for weirdos to work for him; age discrimination came in by a sidewind too. He did not want Oxford humanities graduates, despite having a history degree from Exeter College, Oxford.
Are these just isolated incidents, or is there something else going on? We used to look on the civil service as the quintessential model employer, with higher standards than the private sector. Indeed, it had to have them in order to compete, given the rather lower salaries.
Many would agree that the civil service could do with some reform. It is curious that almost as soon as a public servant develops an expertise in a particular area, he or she is moved on. There is little career development. The senior civil service is lacking in digital skills. The job for life is probably outdated.
It is, however, the nastiness and lack of care that shocks. How an institution treats its employees is a good test of its character. The civil service is demoralised; this can only make it worse.
John Bowers QC
(Employment lawyer), London
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