Letter: The elusive civil servant

Dr Roger James
Wednesday 08 April 1998 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

ANDREAS Whittam Smith's article on the irresponsibility of civil servants (Comment, 7 April) reminds me of a series of radio lectures given by Professor David Henderson as long ago as 1977. His title was "The Unimportance of Being Right".

In his analysis of the reasons for bad civil service advice, he blamed the anonymity of that advice and the continual shifting of civil servants from one department to another. It is always the department's advice. The individual civil servant responsible has most likely moved on elsewhere by the time the consequences are apparent.

"Not only may it not matter much for your career whether or not you were right, but few will ever know". Whether or not a civil servant is often right is not a factor, Henderson found, in the speed of his promotion.

Dr ROGER JAMES

Portsmouth

Hampshire

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in