Civil Servants

[Furunculus]

Generally -

I take the view that we ran India with a civil service that numbered in hundreds, so it is inexcusable that little old britain needs a civil service that has long since shot past half a million full time employees, not to mention the extra ~100,000 part time manequins.

I accept that we no longer live in the 1800's, and that government has many other jobs society expects sit to fulfill, but i reject the acceptance of labour governments that there is always more that can be done requiring an ever greater number of civil servants to achieve.

There is no two ways around it, the civil service represents the unproductive part of society, and to keep them in employ requires the taxation of the productive part of society, a factor that gets more out-of-whack every time a gender equality officer is employed.

Specifically -

Re: the MOD; I accept the view of another MOD civil servant who knows more about the matter than I, to whit;

"As to the MoD; of the 85000 CS, 2500 are RFA, another several thousand are MPGS / MOD GS / MOD Police. Several tens of thousands more are manual workers, labourers, nursery assistants etc. The actual number of desk bound CS in London of all grades is about 2000, of which maybe half have real influence. A 25% cut as posited by the Conservatives would merely reduce further the support provided to HM Forces. Not that i disagree that there is not waste to be cut, but not as much as people suppose."

There is certainly a case for scaling back the MOD, but i have a much more sympathy for the MOD than other less fiscally neglected corners of public spending, because those civil servants are part of the reason why Britain still maintains the range of capabilities that preserve its great power status.