It’s unsurprising that the Times would want to sensationalise tittle-tattle between civil servants over coffee for a striking headline. It’s also unsurprising that those around Jeremy Corbyn don’t appreciate claims about his supposed frailty.
However, it’s disappointing to see Owen Jones jump so quickly to cries of a full-blown establishment conspiracy (A partisan civil service is a threat to us all, Journal, 4 July).
A quick read of the Times’s scoop on “civil service fears” about Corbyn’s health revealed little substance behind the headline. That it reached the ears of a Times journalist is rightly condemned, though it was clear from day one that this did not represent the view of the civil service, just a couple of individuals.
Jones reveals a deep-rooted cynicism about the civil service as a privileged elite. In reality, senior civil servants are some of the most talented and committed public servants in the country – and they are trade union members in numbers which would make many a fellow general secretary’s eyes water.
Jones’s column demonstrates a flagrant ignorance of the modern civil service, which shares a public-sector ethos based on delivering decent public services that should chime with Labour’s own objectives.
If Labour came to power, it would need the civil service to deliver any new policy objectives. Lazily branding it as the new enemy within not only insults those on whom a Labour government would have to rely, but would act as an unnecessary distraction to any new administration.
Dave Penman
FDA general secretary
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