Suffer the Poor Civil Servants

This hand-wringing, bed-wetting piece of Pootery is probably the funniest thing the Observer has printed in years. Written by a “senior civil servant” one could be forgiven for thinking that the End Times are upon us. In reality, of course, the government has decided to spend just £700bn or so in the final year of this parliament. Disaster!

Speaking last week to junior civil servants, I found it impossible to muster the usual energy and excitement. I normally ignite the groups with a vision of our higher purpose and entrance them with the dream of a long bright career. Sadly my dream is dead. I don’t know what we are doing or why we are doing it. I can’t escape the feeling that all our dynamism and creativity – so long targeted at the problems in our society – has been turned inward. Vast systems have been built to freeze spending and implement cuts.