Civil Service counts on public paying for its dismal failures

THE Civil Service often used to be compared to a Rolls-Royce because of its quality. But today it is beginning to resemble an outdated gas guzzler which is expensive to run and increasingly unreliable.

- Leo McKinstry

Whitehall’s chronic inefficiencies have been thrown into the spotlight again this week by devastating revelations about the shambolic response of the Foreign Office to Nato’s recent withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The ultimate blame for the lethal chaos that gripped the country ultimately lies with President Biden – for his precipitous decision without any real consultation – and, more so, with the Taliban for its oppressive, reactionary dogma.

Yet incompetent, idle British officialdom appears to have worsened the crisis.

That is certainly the verdict of brave whistleblower Raphael Marshall, a Foreign Office desk officer who was appalled at the bureaucratic ineptitude and indifference that characterised his department, with the result that people were left “to die at the hands of the Taliban”.

In a 39-page dossier of failings for the Commons foreign affairs committee, he highlighted a sorry lack of planning and urgency.