wanderlust wrote: Sluffy wrote:
I've headed public sector departments but I've certainly not been an expert/specialist of those departments and my role was to see that they worked effectively, efficiently and economically and not to be an expert there.
The Foreign Office is somewhat different from the local council. Their diplomatic role is also an intelligence gathering role - they have spies and everything. Given that he was liasing directly with the US army generals I suspect it would have been a failure of duty not to know what was going on.
See your general point re helicopter view but the roles are not comparable.
At the end of the day the 'experts' or 'administrators' (like myself) are reporting to elected 'politicians' who certainly are not experts in the various disciplines but who make their decisions based on their mandate they've been elected on and/or the basis that their manifesto was the one that won them the election and thus their mandate to govern.
This certainly doesn't mean that we have the cleverest or smartest people making the decisions that may well effect everyone, or even that the independent and expertise information given to them - whether by an expert or administrator of that department (both at a local or national level) will be accepted or even acted upon.
That's the system we have.
The politicians who have climbed their way to the top by whatever means they have are quite entitled to administer the country and reform it's institutions in anyway it sees fit until they lose office, usually by an election or in more extreme instances by being overthrown.
Johnson as the legitimate authority and power (both within his party and from the country) to do what he wishes - even if that means doing things in a way that have never been done before such as having a personal advisor having more influence than a Head of the CS and dismantling/restructuring or whatever his plans are for Whitehall and putting a non CS as his National Security Advisor.
You may not like it, I may not like it but that's allowed within the rules of the game that is being played.
Take politics (and religion) away from the world and I think it will be a much better place to live in. Until that happens and of course it never will, we have to all play the game the best we can.
It's as simple as that to me and a failed former PM criticising the appointment isn't going to cut much ice with anyone who can do anything about it much really.
I truly doubt the country as become less secure with Frost in post rather than Sedwill - it's all about internal reform of the CS than anything else.