I think the following Freedom of Information request relating to a blog I wrote in September 2010 interesting. I was unaware the Fo! request had been made:
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So, we are expected to believe that what are supposed to be some of the brightest minds in the Civil Service (and I met some of them in 2010 and 2011 and they are), as well of course, as people within HMRC, did not spot this story in any one of three sources, because not only did you and the BBC report it but Private Eye carried the story, and continued with regular updates from 2010 onwards. Alternatively we are asked to believe that if they did see the story they felt it so unworthy of attention they ignored it. Both suggestions are absolutely and utterly unbelievable and thus the stench of a cover up grows ever stronger.
Agreed
Well said.
The Treasury is either full to the rafters with blithering idiots/nincompoops or someone is lying to us.
Your own personal comntact with representatives of the Treasury indicates the the former is not true, so…..
Ivan – covering up uncomfortable stories is at the heart of the culture of the public sector, as I am sure you know. (Not that the FOI letter shown above proves anything other than as a narrow response to a specific request).
I’m not sure why our host is surprised at behaviour like this. I’m not surprised. I have been trying to convince him to get some work in the public sector to see it for himself. Maybe you’d have more luck convincing him.
Then watch this space
I am being considered for one
Of course, I may not get it
Hopefully not at the OU, Richard, where the recent departure to pastures new of our VC (soon to be replaced by my namesake, Peter Horrocks, from the BBC) was followed after a polite time with the announcement of significant millions of £s of budget cuts.
Definitely not the OU Ivan!
Come on now – this sort of behaviour is not just restricted to the public sector is it?
Adrian – and covering up uncomfortable stories is NOT at the heart of the culture of the private sector, I suppose, eg HSBC and all the other private sector scandals of recent times.
I suggest that unprincipled people covering their backsides is a fact of human life and can’t be ascribed only to your chosen targets. But then I’m not sure why I’m surprised that those who suffer from selective blindness make such daft assertions.
“Adrian — and covering up uncomfortable stories is NOT at the heart of the culture of the private sector, I suppose, eg HSBC and all the other private sector scandals of recent times.”
Adrian made no mention of the private sector. He simply stated that covering up uncomfortable stories is at the heart of the culture of the public sector, which given the subject of the blog was about an allegation of a cover up seems reasonable comment.
And of course, perusals through just about every Private Eye will confirm this, from MD’s stories about NHS whistle blowers to Rotten Boroughs.
So you are only interested in biased evidence
Your time here is over
Nick
“I suggest that unprincipled people covering their backsides is a fact of human life and can’t be ascribed only to your chosen targets”
I agree 100%. None of us like the disinfectant of sunlight shone on ourselves, and any implication from me that this affects the public sector uniquely was unintended.
But what does annoy me is the stereotypical assumptions that the private sector is all about greed and profit etc., whereas the public sector is about the having the interests of the public at heart. It isn’t that black and white.
As I said in my speech yesterday
Nick, in my experience even principled people are forced into covering their backsides, or that of their seniors/paymasters (which is the case with many civil servants in this case I suspect), if the management and culture of an organisation is suitably skewed. And that applies to any organisation, whether public, private or not for profit (I’ve worked in all three sectors).
For example, as a younger man I spent several years working in a coal mine. For some of that time I worked with a small team on the twighlight shift – the hours between the departure of the afternoon shift at between 8.30 and 9pm (depending on how far they were working from pit bottom), and the arrival of the night shift, when it was possible to carry out routine maintenance work. One night me and another newer member of the team noticed that the overman in charge of our shift left his safety lamp and self rescuer hidden behind an air door. We soon discovered that he did this every shift, despite the fact that not carrying a safety lamp put both him and us in danger from gas. But it meant that he didn’t have to lug the extra weight around on his belt – which was particularly annoying when crawling along a coal face.
After a couple of weeks we decided we’d speak to longer serving members of the team about it, only to learn that they knew about it and did nothing because this particular overman controlled the roster for weekend overtime. And in those days most of my colleagues relied on overtime to boost their wages as we did not enjoy the bonuses some of those working on coal production did.
Result, a safety ethic that was drummed into everyone when they started work at a coal mine was undermined by the need to kowtow to an individual occupying a relatively minor supervisory position because they controlled access to a resource (money).
@Ivan Horrocks
If you ever write an autobiography I will definitely buy a copy!
Ivan, in trying to make my point, I perhaps chose the wrong word. I understand and agree with the point you’ve made…..and promise to buck my ideas up!
Great news – good luck!
Are you in a position to give us a clue about the role, and when you find out?
Have you got anyone lined up to take over this blog if you get it?
A) no clues to be given as yet
B) this blog could continue as is
Phew!
Nowadays you get brownie points at a university for running a blog, Richard, as I’m sure you’re aware. “Impact” and public engagement and all that sort of stuff. Professor Murphy, I presume. Or perhaps a Research Fellow 😉
Let’s see….
Presenter of Top Gear?
Rumbled 🙂
Can you imagine the headline in the Daily Mail. It would be even worse than Ed “two kitchens” Miliband. Richard twin turbo Murphy!!!!
🙂