
The British Government Takes on the British Civil Service - bryanrasmussen
https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/07/04/the-government-takes-on-the-civil-service
======
eeh
The article says this is led by Dominic Cummings, whose blog is
[https://dominiccummings.com/](https://dominiccummings.com/) if you want to
know more about him. He advocates for a tech/quantitative approach to policy,
e.g.

[https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-
lot-w...](https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-
hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos/) on
who he wants to hire.

[https://dominiccummings.com/2019/06/26/on-the-
referendum-33-...](https://dominiccummings.com/2019/06/26/on-the-
referendum-33-high-performance-government-cognitive-technologies-michael-
nielsen-bret-victor-seeing-rooms/) on tech to assist decision making in
government.

[https://dominiccummings.com/2014/08/19/standin-by-the-
window...](https://dominiccummings.com/2014/08/19/standin-by-the-window-where-
the-light-is-strong-de-extinction-machine-intelligence-the-search-for-extra-
solar-life-neural-networks-autonomous-drone-swarms-bombing-parliament-
genetics-amp/) on his trip to SciFoo, and being a policy person amongst tech
people.

He's not very popular in the UK, which is tangential to the article, so this
thread is at risk of becoming a smear comment section.

------
stuaxo
"This government has a better chance of building a more effective British
state than any government in decades".

They saved the biggest joke for the end, this Government makes Theresa may
look "strong and stable".

~~~
frereubu
I read this as being to do with a crisis (Brexit / Covid-19) being an
opportunity, particularly with an 80-seat majority. But I share your deep
cynicism about their ability to actually make any productive use of that, and
in fact expect the opposite - a deeper crisis.

------
CodeGlitch
Not sure what this has to do with tech or HackerNews in general.

~~~
eeh
The leader of this, Dominic Cummings, advocates for a quantitative/tech
approach to policy, e.g.

[https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-
lot-w...](https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-
hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos/) on
who he wants to hire.

[https://dominiccummings.com/2019/06/26/on-the-
referendum-33-...](https://dominiccummings.com/2019/06/26/on-the-
referendum-33-high-performance-government-cognitive-technologies-michael-
nielsen-bret-victor-seeing-rooms/) on tech to assist decision making in
government.

[https://dominiccummings.com/2014/08/19/standin-by-the-
window...](https://dominiccummings.com/2014/08/19/standin-by-the-window-where-
the-light-is-strong-de-extinction-machine-intelligence-the-search-for-extra-
solar-life-neural-networks-autonomous-drone-swarms-bombing-parliament-
genetics-amp/) on his trip to SciFoo, and being a policy person amongst tech
people.

~~~
rich_sasha
His goals are rather dystopian though, despite the sophisticated tools.

There is no scientific view under which Brexit, which he helped achieve, is a
good idea.

~~~
eeh
> His goals are rather dystopian though, despite the sophisticated tools.

Oh?

> There is no scientific view under which Brexit, which he helped achieve, is
> a good idea.

Brexit involved many factors including the value attributed to greater
democratic control and greater control over immigration. How have you
quantified that in your (allegedly) exhaustive evaluation of all scientific
views?

------
gandalfian
I worry it's the overconfidence of an Oxbridge education that leads to picking
the most complicated of possible solutions. Rail privatisations or farm
subsidies implemented in such a Byzantine way that no normal mortal can ever
understand them, let alone implement them. Though ultimately we will get
better government when the electorate votes for better people. Despite their
good intentions so many of our MP's are way out of their depth.

------
Theodores
Paywalled article. Without a link to the full article I am not sure this is
right for HN.

In summary for international readers, the situation in the UK is that the
British government changed with Brexit. There is the Prime Minister who was
elected to get Brexit done, his unelected special adviser and fellow Brexiteer
Michael Gove.

With the election the ruling party only have pro Brexit MPs, the pro-Europe
supporting members of the party were replaced.

As a consequence government is not by cabinet, there is the clique of the
Prime Minister, the special adviser and Michael Gove. Michael Gove has a
proper job title but few Brits know it.

With the current lineup of the cabinet the special advisers for each cabinet
member now have to work for the prime minister's special adviser. These civil
service jobs are now political appointments.

There have been other changes that this article is about, essentially civil
servants from the top down are being replaced with Brexit supporters. Normally
civil service jobs go to those with experience and skills, not Brexit
ideology.

In the process the trio running the country have picked a fight with the whole
civil service.

~~~
frereubu
Turn off JavaScript (e.g. using uBlock Origin) and you can read it in full.

~~~
gandalfian
Or feed the URL into outline.com or archive.org

------
randompwd
HN really needs tagged filters on submissions so i can ignore all 'general'
news stories. So many non-tech, non-startup or non-'intellectual' stories
hitting front page.

