The two faces of the new administration

 There were leaks of the new administration's energy policy, of course, but refreshingly the details were spelled out in parliament rather than at a media conference. There was, admittedly, a delay in making the text of the relevant ministerial statement available to MPs, but I am with the Speaker when he said:

I am sorry that this has happened. I consider it to be discourteous to the House, and I hope that is not the way the new Government intend to treat the House. Rather than judging it to be deliberate, I will put it down to bad management or incompetence.

Before that debate, there was the regular session of business questions at which the new Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt, was more accommodating to members than any of her predecessors since Sir George Young.in the first years of the coalition.

So it looks as if PM Liz Truss is determined  to restore the respect for the elected Commons on the part of the executive. Sadly, it is entirely a different story when it comes to Britain's civil service, still respected world-wide even after successive governments from Thatcher's onwards have chipped away at it. BBC reports:

Two former heads of the civil service have criticised Liz Truss for sacking the top official at the Treasury within days of becoming prime minister.

Sir Tom Scholar was fired this week - a move seen as part of a pledge by Ms Truss to change "Treasury orthodoxy".
[...]

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend, Lord Butler said his "very unusual and very regrettable" departure reminded him of the US, where it is common for incoming governments to appoint their own officials.

"I think they are behaving improperly towards the civil service," he told the programme.

"A government wouldn't come in and on the first day sack the head of her Majesty's defence forces, the chief of the defence staff," he added.

The crossbench peer, who was cabinet secretary - the UK's top civil servant - under Margaret Thatcher, Sir John Major and Sir Tony Blair, said the departure would prove disruptive.

"It'll weaken them, but it'll also corrupt our system, because one of those great advantages of having an independent, loyal civil service will be compromised."