Watch now | In this special briefing episode, Christopher Snowden and Lord Frost join Callum Price to dissect the ‘stakeholder state’ – the coalition of NGOs, activist judges, commissioners and endless judicial reviews that has paralysed government action in Britain.
If a civil servant tells a minister that something can’t be done because it would be illegal, the response of the minister should be to call for a detailed paper setting out all the aspects of the law that make it illegal, together with a scoping (if not an actual drafting) of the legislative changes that would be necessary to remove the obstacle.
That isn’t necessarily a commitment to making the changes but it should assist in enabling ministers to understand the trade offs between implementing the desired course of action and losing whatever would be lost by removing the obstacles.
I simply can’t understand why ministers are so spineless. I cannot believe that members of any of Mrs Thatcher’s cabinets would have constantly rolled over and given up.
If a civil servant tells a minister that something can’t be done because it would be illegal, the response of the minister should be to call for a detailed paper setting out all the aspects of the law that make it illegal, together with a scoping (if not an actual drafting) of the legislative changes that would be necessary to remove the obstacle.
That isn’t necessarily a commitment to making the changes but it should assist in enabling ministers to understand the trade offs between implementing the desired course of action and losing whatever would be lost by removing the obstacles.
I simply can’t understand why ministers are so spineless. I cannot believe that members of any of Mrs Thatcher’s cabinets would have constantly rolled over and given up.