Has the government finally learned the lesson that expertise matters?

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Are they now going to follow the advice if other acronymic experts? (EPA)

Wednesday’s editorial wisely recommends that the government take the very obvious step of involving the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) – the 127-year-old non-departmental branch of government – to help resolve the multiple NHS disputes. Is the disincentive that the body has a long long-established and proven expertise in the field, a characteristic that the government has memorably considered worthy of denigration?

Few can forget the opinion of Michael Gove, then lord chancellor, on the matter of “expert” expressed in the disastrous 2016 referendum. It may be worthwhile recalling it in its fullness: “I think the people of this country have had enough of experts with organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong”.

We may also recall that faced with the reality of a global pandemic, Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, Rishi Sunak and Gove himself invited the public to place their trust in health experts; after all, it was their job to know about these difficult matters. The experts, though not always listened to by Johnson and Co, got it right.