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Samizdata quote of the day – Reform are shaping up nicely Kruger’s presentation began with the announcement of Reform’s intention to develop a far more detailed agenda for government than any incoming administration in recent memory, including a range of pre-written legislation to give them a running start to their first term in office. In addition, the party will have candidates lined up for key appointments, bringing in ‘expertise, advice and executive capacity’ from outside Whitehall, to both civil service leadership and ministerial roles. The intention, according to Kruger, is to ensure that a Reform Government is positioned to give a clear list of priorities to civil servants upon entering Downing Street — not the other way around.
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Good to hear, although it will only stiffen the resolve of opponents. I expect there are a number of Civil Servants, QUANGOs and NGOs who expected to ‘shape’ a new Reform government.
Parliament governing. Whatever next?
The SNP did this for the 2014 referendum and it was the death of them.
@Quentin
Your point is a good one, but, in the current situation, doing a “second Term Trump” is absolutely essential.
Cummings has laid out the problems faced by any government when grappling with an entrenched hostile civil service/bureaucracy
https://dominiccummings.substack.com/p/people-ideas-machines-xiv-lessons
Interesting – and Kemi Badenoch has already done a similar thing for the Conservatives, detailed policy and preparations (including expensive legal advice) for dealing with officials and “experts”.
However, both the Reform Party and the Conservatives face the same problem – the next General Election will not be till 2029 (most likely May of 2029 – to coincide with the council elections) and there will not be much of a country left by then.
The situation really is that bad – decline economic (and cultural – societal) decline is going to accelerate into collapse.
I am old and poor – I can not leave, but if you have financial means,or you are young and have marketable skills – LEAVE.
Quentin:
Perhaps the difference is that the SNP is a hard left national socialist party. It therefore follows that every policy they advocate is completely and utterly wrong. What has damaged the SNP are the very policies they advocate, not the effectiveness with which they advocate them. Nichola Sturgeon was brought down by her deranged trans activism, and Humza Yusaf because he is stupid on an epic scale.
Johnk – and most of those completely and utterly wrong policies are being followed all over the United Kingdom.
I repeat – there will not be much of a country left by 2029.
Paul:
Sadly, I tend to agree with you. The frightening thing is that if Starmer is forced out, there is a strong possibility of Miliband becoming prime minister. He is apparently popular with Labour party members, and if these people had any economic understanding, they would not be members of the Labour party.
“the working class” – there is vastly less productive industry in New York than there was once, and in a few years there will be little or none.
“the ownership class” – if only there was one.
There are some large scale individual owners left in New York – but they work at cross purposes politically (and culturally, they do not act as a class.
Most of the economy is now corporations – “owned” by institutions such as pension funds (including government pension funds). Hired managers in charge of other hired managers.
And then there are the financial entities that “manage” the shares owned by institutions – financial entities such as BlackRock (based in New York City).
So we come full circle – back to people such as Mr Larry Fink head of BlackRock and the World Economic Forum.
Mr Fink – your subsidies, over many years, have helped produce people such as Mayor Elect Mamdani who would like to turn your family into soap – it is said you regret a lot of what you have done in the past (backing DEI and all the rest of it) – but it is a bit late now.
@Paul Marks, If next UK General Election is in May 2029 to coincide with the council elections, then it will fall precisely on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1979 Election. I suspect that irony might be intolerably painful for our political class.
So, as always Yes Minister has the key to understanding this. In this episode Jim, the minister, is trying to get the civil service to cut some costs and he hits a wall of intransigence. He has a discussion with his PPS Wooley and asks what he can do. He can’t sack them, he has no input on their annual reviews, he really has no control over them. The humour in the episode then turns on the one leverage point he has — approval of honours like knighthoods, KMGs and so forth.
But, while amusing, it does show the basic problem. Even with the best will in the world, Reform will come to government and hit an almost unmovable wall of resistance to their goals. In theory the civil service works for the politicians, but, if you can’t fire or demote someone, in fact if you have no method of sanctioning a civil servant, then any control you have is illusionary, or at best customary. So what then? Of course they won’t just come right out and say “I’m not going to do that” they will just make it impossibly hard, dilute it, undermine it, change the plain meaning, bury it in minutiae, or, to use Humphrey Appleby’s standard tactic, subject it to review by an interdepartmental committee and report to fully understand and flesh out the implications of the change.
And what then? If you have no power to force them, you have to find subtle levers. The delusion that you can just command the civil service and they will bow to your will does not match up with reality.
They have been doing this for five hundred years. And remember, in a war the most difficult enemy to dislodge is the ones with heavily prepared defensive fortifications.
So I wish them good luck. And I hope they can find success in such an impossibly difficult environment. Farage is a wily old soul, so perhaps I should not underestimate him.
It is not that the system is broken and needs to be fixed.
The system is working as designed and must be destroyed.
I put a comment in the wrong thread – silly me. The comment about “classes” in New York City.
Alan Peakall and John – yes indeed.
Fraser Orr and Dan Souter – interesting points Gentleman.
Frustrating though it is, I understand Farage’s reticence so far. He estimates he cannot win on the backs of disgruntled Tory voters alone and must capture part of the middle. He is therefore trying to avoid at all costs appearing ‘far right’. It will be interesting to see what policies he is prepared to commit to.
I support Reform – for what it is worth from here in the United States – and wish them well. But they have got a LOT of ground to cover in a relatively short time. It took Labour nearly twenty-five years to replace the Liberals. The Parliamentary Labour Party was formed in 1900, but the first Labour Government did not take office until 1924,
The NSDAP was formed in 1919 and was in power by 1933. OK, not perhaps the best example, but parties have come to power quite quickly.
The Republican Party was formed in 1854 and Lincoln was elected 6 years later. Is that better?
If you accept that Reform is an off-shoot of UKIP, then it is well old enough to win.
Reform is more accurately descended from Brexit Party rather than UKIP
For input into planning, Reform should borrow extensively from Sean Gabb’s Radical Coup. He lays out a worthwhile plan on how to take power in the event of a Reform government.
As to the simple serpents, if Parliament is supreme, then Ministers can be granted the power and authority of hire and fire. Although the simpler fix would be to defenestrate the entirety of the top 3 or 4 levels of “management”. Cromwell comes to mind: Ye have been here far too long for all the good that ye have done. In the name of God, go!
There’s a question I have repeatedly put to an acquaintance who is well connected to the Reform leadership, a member of the party & a flag waver for them. What are your plans for putting your policies into action should you be the next government? This was the same person with the same connections to UKIP I asked about plans for getting Brexit through should there be a Leave result before the referndum. I’m getting the same answer as I did then. “Wait & see.” Well I waited but I didn’t see.
Like Brexit, they’ll be resisted by the entire establishment & the usual suspects. And like the last time I don’t think they have any plans. As with Brexit, they’re relying on democracy to deliver. Good luck with that! You’re the only one believes in democracy.