Just for fun from the CSRF magazine:
James Callaghan – Labour, 1976-79
Foreign Secretary: Tony Crosland, Dr David Owen.
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Denis Healey.
Home Secretary: Roy Jenkins, Merlyn Rees.
Margaret Thatcher – Conservative, 1979-90
Foreign Secretary: Lord Carrington, Francis Pym, Sir Geoffry Howe, John Major, Douglas Hurd.
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Sir Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson, John Major.
Home Secretary: Willie Whitelaw, Leon Brittan, Douglas Hurd, David Waddington.
John Major – Conservative, 1990-97
Foreign Secretary: Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkind.
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Norman Lamont, Ken Clarke.
Home Secretary: Kenneth Baker, Ken Clarke, Michael Howard.
Tony Blair – Labour, 1997-2007
Foreign Secretary: Robin Cook, Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett.
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Gordon Brown.
Home Secretary: Jack Straw, David Blunkett, Charles Clarke, John Reid.
Gordon Brown – Labour, 2007-
Foreign secretary: David Miliband.
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Alistair Darling.
Home Secretary: Jacqui Smith, Alan Johnson.
What a scary thought…
The nature of the civil servant. We all [who once worked for the civil service] were under different party’s ministers at some point. I worked in exports at Revenue and Customs, one of the little bunch who decided if and when ships went with their manifested cargoes.
Very much so, we serve the Government of the day…
What a depressing list! Next year I celebrate 25 years in my department.. Perhaps I’ll have a strycchnine and razor blade party!
Very depressing indeed. I think I best no share my years with you, but I do wonder why I have resisted the razors for so long…
Scary indeed!
Isn’t it just?
That is interesting.
I went to the same hospital workplace every day for the last 18 years of my career but had four different employers who issued my pay cheque during that time. It was most bizarre.
That does sound rather odd.
Ah, outsider here – decades in private sector, with near-nil experience of work in the public one (all of which were revelatory in one way or another, mostly unpleasantly so it has to be said – probably because I fit the private sector mould).
I think there is a place for both private and public sector, it just depends on what the work is.
David Waddington? Um, yes, he must have made a big impression.
Maybe I made him up LOL
When I worked in community care in the home we were often sub contracted by the government, which meant we had to deal with the interference of case managers who knew nothing of our work, clients, or their care needs,but nonetheless dictated timetables and what we could and could not do for our very seriously ill clients.
It was most annoying. Of course, I did not follow their policies, simply because they did not know enough to lay them down, but instead let the client dictate what their priority needs were , how much time was required and then hounded my supervisors to get me the timetables approved.
Luckily my boss knew my level of honesty, care and skill and so the case managers were kept at bay.
I was almost investigated once when I syringe fed a dying patient for weeks[because their policy was if they did not eat from a spoon they were refusing food] when really my patient was too ill to eat without the method above.
I was expected to basically alter her impending natural cause of death, allowing her to die a lingering, agonizing death via starvation instead.
We were also informed to withold CPR/First Aid and even refrain from calling an ambulance until we first called and discussed the situation with a case manager and got direction.Of course, I refused that as well.
I was well known[and disliked] by the Government case managers but luckily, beloved by my company and clients.
That very well describes some of the red tape I have had to deal with on occasions. The bit about the dying patient sounds particularly awful, I would have done the same as you.
Uber,
I’m so glad you didn’t let the micro managers win. Your strength of character won out; good on you.