David Levy – It doesn’t matter . . . yes, it does – Aug 24

We have a sea change in our national Government from Tory to Labour, and all because the people wanted change, and voted for it.

The question is: will things change and if so, how quickly?

An even more fundamental question is – how can things change when the Civil Service controls all ports of Government?

I was schooled in my knowledge of ‘Ministry Affairs’ by watching Yes Minister in which the Minister, Jim Hacker, wants his policies whilst the guiles of his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, deny him his desires. All fiction?

Well, maybe. Nevertheless, an accurate portrayal of Ministry life?

This was the favourite viewing of Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and for a reason.

Decades have passed by and the grip on government by the bureaucratic civil service in every Ministry is vice-like, and allows no breaches in the designs of the bureaucracy for its own absolute power. I fear Labour may have a lot to learn when delivering its agenda.

It is difficult for the individual to penetrate this vice-like grip as bureaucracies are protected in their design by layers of rules and regulations, each one protecting the other.

You may say, this thinking is cynical. However Marinet has experienced this reality over many decades of interaction with numerous agencies and Ministries.

It is so easy to become fatalistic and to give up, and that has been the story over the years with many activists. It becomes easier, many find, to adopt hands-on tasks. Beach cleans are a notable example. In itself, that approach is fine. However it is very different from staying the course with Government, and trying to elicit change.

One of the other things we have learnt is that without people power, or joined up activists, we are going nowhere. That was the spark that was Extinction Rebellion.

Pity they left the organisation to the anarchists.

With the NGO sector neutered by ‘charitable law’, who is going to mount the challenge to a future of failing infrastructure?

David Levy