Britain's system of Government stinks!

In simple terms this post's headline carries the message of a report, available today, from a group of senior civil servants and government advisers. They inform us all, as if the point has not already been well proven over recent months, that our elected politicians are a motley bunch and our system of governance has failed.

Most significantly, I would have thought, are the careers of those who are the signatories to this report, listed here. These are the men who have uncomplainingly served their political masters in return for vast salaries, undeserved honours and huge index-linked pensions while parliament was neutered and degraded and our sovereignty handed to the EU. Glance at some examples I have selected from the resources of Wikipedia from whence also comes the one telling image:

Frederick Edward Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell, KG, GCB, CVO, PC (born 3 January 1938) is a retired British civil servant, now sitting in the House of Lords as a life peer.

He had a high profile career in the civil service from 1961 to 1998, serving as Private Secretary to five prime ministers. He was Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service from 1988 to 1998.

Lord Butler is shown here in the robes of a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter

Full Wikipedia entry is here




The Rt. Hon. Sir John Chilcot, GCB, PC (born 22 April 1939) is a privy council member and former civil servant. His appointment as chair of an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath was announced in June 2009.^[1]

He was educated at Brighton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read English and languages. A career civil servant until his retirement in 1997, he served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, Deputy Under-Secretary at the Home Office in charge of the Police Department, and a variety of posts in the Home Office, the Civil Service Department and the Cabinet Office, including Private Secretary appointments to Home Secretaries Roy Jenkins, Merlyn Rees, and Willie Whitelaw, and to the Head of the Civil Service, William Armstrong.^[2]

His honours include CB (1990), KCB (1994), and GCB (1998). He became a Privy Counsellor in 2004, and was a member of the Butler Review of the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He acted as "staff counsellor" to MI5 and MI6 from 1999 to 2004, "dealing with private and personal complaints from members of the intelligence services about their work and conditions."^[3]

He is described as "a mandarin with a safe pair of hands", though some doubt his forensic skill. International lawyer Philippe Sands is reported as saying "Having some familiarity with Sir John's questioning ... it is not immediately apparent that he will have the backbone to take on former government ministers."^[4] Sands also commented specifically in The Observer, on Sir John’s questioning of attorney-general Peter Goldsmith during the Butler inquiry:

“He [Lord Goldsmith] gave evidence on 5 May 2004. The uncorrected transcript shows some members of the inquiry pressing him [Goldsmith] hard. By contrast, Sir John's spoonfed questions give every impression of being designed to elicit a response from the attorney general that would demonstrate the reasonableness of his actions and those of the government.” ^[5]

Full Wikipedia entry is here. No image is necessary, he can be seen on television on most days at present, today co-incidentally in view of the quote above, with Lord Goldsmith.

Sir Richard Clive Mottram, GCB (born April 23, 1946) is Chairman or a Board member of a number of private and public sector organisations, many with international links.He is Chairman of: Amey plc; the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl); and the UK Advisory Board of Employment Services Holdings; and a Board member of: the International Advisory Board of GardaWorld; Ashridge Business School; and the Ditchley Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He was formerly a British civil servant, who retired in 2007 from his most recent senior post as Permanent Secretary, Intelligence, Security and Resilience in the Cabinet Office.

Full Wikipedia details are here. (Can you believe the nerve of a former "Permanent Secretary at the Department of Defence, DWP and DETR and Chairman of JIC" considering the shambles the MOD has recently proved itself to be, accepting all these important posts (some apparently with defense links) and thereafter putting his name to a report on "better governance"?

The list continues, but I believe my point is made!