The Insys effect

 PBS America recently showed on exposé of Insys, a US company once the darling of Wall Street which put sales ahead of patient safety. While the profits from what was in effect legalised opioid addiction rolled in, investors and stock market analysts did not ask too many questions. One element of Insys Therapeutics' rise which struck me was that, while founder John Kapoor was qualified in medicinal chemistry, he recruited staff, including the most senior, with sales rather than scientific expertise. Indeed, a background in the pharmaceutical industry seemed almost to have been a disqualification. Thus there was nobody in a senior position with sufficient knowledge to query the direction Kapoor was taking the company in. 

It seems to me that something much the same thing goes on in politics. The head man may feel insecure when those under him clearly know more than he does, but more often he wants to pursue his own unwise course uninterrupted by warning voices or legal quibbles. President Trump is the obvious current example,  but the Johnson-Cummings axis comes close. So far, they have not been allowed to go as far as Trump. 

The American system permits the President to appoint whom he or she wills to their equivalent of the civil service. Cummings wants the same sort of power over our civil service because, he says, there is a dearth of specialist knowledge under the present system. How genuine this expression is can be judged by what has happened to the NHS in England. Government has appointed to successive leadership roles (which would normally go to an experienced civil servant or a distinguished specialist) Baroness Harding, granddaughter of a distinguished army officer, but with no specialised knowledge or even a good business record. Further, says Private Eye: 

A document leaked to the Health Service Journal last week revealed that there is just one clinician or public health expert on the 15-strong executive committee of Dido Harding's NHS Test and Trace but plenty of figures brought in from her own world of retail and commerce.