• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Elevenses
  • Business
  • Food
  • Travel
  • Property
  • JOBS
  • All
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Sport
    • Tech/Auto
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Elevenses
  • Business
  • Food
  • Travel
  • Property
  • JOBS
  • All
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Sport
    • Tech/Auto
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Dominic Cummings calls for ‘weirdos’ to apply for Downing Street jobs

Boris Johnson’s special adviser posted an apparent job advert in a blog post.

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
2020-01-03 10:13
in Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Boris Johnson’s key adviser Dominic Cummings has called for “weirdos” to apply for jobs in Downing Street as he warned of “profound problems” in Government decision-making.

Mr Cummings posted an apparent job advert on Thursday saying Number 10 wants to hire an “unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds” to work as special advisers and potentially officials.

But a civil servants’ union said staff are currently recruited on merit and “because of what you can do, not what you believe”.

“Seismic changes” to the civil service

The blog post exceeding 2,900 words came amid reports that the Prime Minister is planning “seismic changes” to the civil service.

Mr Cummings, a former Vote Leave director, said he hopes to be made “largely redundant” within a year by the recruitment drive.

He called for officials including “weirdos and misfits with odd skills”, data scientists and policy experts to apply to a gmail account if they think they fit the bill.

Mr Cummings warned that there are “some profound problems at the core of how the British state makes decisions” and that he currently makes decisions “well outside” his “circle of competence”.

And he says the need for change comes with Brexit requiring large policy and decision-making structure changes and a Government with an 80-strong majority having “little need to worry about short-term unpopularity”.

Super-talented weirdos

Under a subsection on hiring “super-talented weirdos”, he writes that the Government needs “some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole”.

RelatedPosts

Alastair Campbell has some choice words for Boris Johnson following resignation

Johnson ‘bewildered and appalled’ after being ‘forced out’

Trump indictment: Showing off classified material, storing documents in bathroom

Cabinet Office wary of Boris Johnson handing unredacted Covid details to inquiry

Mr Cummings’ post came after Rachel Wolf, who helped draw up the blueprint of Tory election pledges, said civil servants could be made to take regular exams to prove they are up to their Whitehall jobs.

Under “seismic” changes being planned by Number 10, she also said that civil servants are “woefully unprepared” for sweeping reforms that Mr Johnson is keen to push through.

The General Secretary of the FDA union Dave Penman said Mr Cummings had not clarified how new recruits would be selected or what their role within government would be.

What you can do, not what you believe

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The civil service is recruited on merit, it’s a really fundamental principle.

“You are employed in the civil service because of what you can do, not what you believe.

“If you surround yourself with people who are recruited simply because they believe the same as you believe, and whose employment is at your behest, is that the best way for the civil service or advisers to speak truth unto power?

“I don’t think it is, and I think some of those approaches are quite dangerous as well.”

Like-minded individuals

In a statement, he added: “It would be ironic if, in an attempt to bring in radical new thinking, Cummings was to surround himself with like-minded individuals – recruited for what they believe, not what they can do – and less able to provide the robust advice a minister may need, rather than simply the advice they want.”

Mr Penman also blamed officials’ salary levels as being a restricting factor for recruitment, adding that the “government’s failure to pay a market rate restricts the pool”.

The former head of the civil service Lord Kerslake warned that any changes Mr Cummings may want to implement cannot be achieved overnight, but that the civil service “should be open to challenge, improvement and change”.

“My point would be Governments come in at this situation and the biggest risk for them is hubris – they think because they’ve won an election they can do everything and change everything overnight and it isn’t like that. If they don’t want to hear that then so be it.

“But there’s plenty of evidence that change is possible in the civil service, it was achieved when I was there, it has been achieved since, but you have to work with the civil service and try to carry them with the process of change,” Lord Kerslake told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He added: “There’s a balancing act here between getting things done and also making changes to the way the civil service works and that’s something they’re going to have to work through, and I would advise them to work it through in some detail.”

Related: Cuts bring level of child exploitation in Britain ‘almost back to Victorian times’

Content Protection by DMCA.com
Please login to join discussion

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending

Elevenses: The Thing About Wrexham’s Cinderella Story

Elevenses: Exposing the Tories’ Deepfake Illegal Immigration Bill

Elevenses: Rishi’s Finest Hour

More from TLE

Options Trading

Bar of the week: Coupette

A former Tory council leader who was jailed after sexually and indecently assaulting teenagers has died

Trump helicopter flown in to Scottish resorts to woo high flyers secretly returned home amid falling demand

Irish Govt reactivates no-deal contingency planning in preparation for unravelling of Brexit deal

Jeremy Corbyn lays flowers at New Zealand Embassy following Christchurch atrocity

Rees-Mogg maintains MPs were not ‘manhandled’ – despite photo evidence emerging

Royal race row: The full exchange between Palace guest and Lady Susan Hussey

Film Review: The Escape

Lotto Results for Saturday 25 March 2023 Lottery Tonight’s winning numbers

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.