In response to Laura Perrins: Windrush and the law of diminishing competence, english_pensioner wrote:
The main problem with the Civil Service is the lack of any ‘new blood’. Anyone who joins the service for a career is indoctrinated in its ways from day one. And these ways never change. I’m sure most go back to the days of Samuel Pepys when the Civil Service was founded. You have a career provided that you follow the rules and never make a decision for which you can be blamed. You will rise steadily to your level of incompetence.
The Home Office, amongst other departments, needs to be re-built from the ground upwards using total outsiders who have successfully managed large non-state involved, organisations (and have no Common Purpose associations). I suspect that, properly organised with modern technology, it would need a fraction of its staff leaving the rest to be redeployed to guard our borders.
One also suspects that there is an element of blackmail in actions like this destruction of records. If a Minister pushes for action or change that the mandarins don’t like, such information can be released to the media in a way that the Minister gets the blame.
