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World

Boris Johnson's survival rests on reforming Whitehall

10 July 2021

2:22 AM

10 July 2021

2:22 AM

More than 40 years after it was written there are still lines in Yes Minister that are painfully accurate about how Whitehall works. One of these is Jim Hacker’s comment that the British system of government has the engine of a lawnmower and the brakes of a Rolls Royce. Yet most new prime ministers regard civil service reform as a ‘third-term issue’.

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