In the wake of the Raab affair, the supporters of the disgraced Justice Minister are calling for the decapitation of the career civil service. They are aggrieved that poor ministerial management has been called out and want to take it out on the top civil servants, rather as successive Home Secretaries responding to the increased influence of people-traffickers have taken it out on the victims.
Their inspiration is the power of incoming administrations in the United States to change every public appointment. However, the US has been a major power not because of her system of national government but rather in spite of it. The nation's strength results from sheer size, the muscle of global corporations based there and the devolution of political power. Trump appointees damaged the national interest. President Carter's early choices did not inspire confidence, either. Who would the equivalent appointees be in Westminster? The Tories' choice of special advisers should provide a warning. Can you imagine Dominic Cummings in day-to-day charge of a major Department? And, unlike the fixed term of a US presidency, prime ministers and therefore cabinets are liable to change over the course of a parliament. A change of approach, such as that we saw under Truss and Kwarteng, would lead to a change in appointees, leading to more uncertainty than with mere ministerial changes.
Post-Cameron, Conservative administrations have shown impatience with international norms and even the law of the land. A trained permanent civil service, recruited on merit, is a bulwark against such dangerous misbehaviour.
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