| 1 min read
IF WE DIDN'T KNOW it before, the Covid-19 inquiry has made it abundantly clear that the UK entered the pandemic with a Prime Minister and a special adviser who were so unsuited to their roles that they made literally a lethal combination. However, it would be a shame if all that is learned is that you don't want to be relying on Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings in an emergency. Beneath the ##**!# of the WhatsApp messages lie other potentially more significant and enduring lessons, particularly about the state of the Civil Service. The Covid-19 inquiry offers compelling evidence that the working relationship between ministers and civil servants has become dysfunctional. Ministers are often disappointed with the quality of Civil Service advice and distrustful of officials’ intentions. Civil servants, for their part, are unable to stand up to behaviour by ministers that breaches established standards of propriety and codes of conduct.
