The third triumvirate

The second triumvirate was that formed by Messrs. Octavian, Antony and Lepidus in 43BCE, in the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar. And after a proper number of battles, Octavian emerged at the top of the greasy pole and stayed there for many a long year. Antony committed suicide, while Lepidus was deemed harmless and allowed to retire to obscurity. See references 1 and 2. Similar scenarios were played out in the Soviet Union, getting on for two thousand years later. And I dare say there were others.

It seems that a third triumvirate has now been formed by Messrs. Johnson, Gove and Cummings. Johnson mans the front office, Cummings mans the back office and Gove floats between the two. But will one of them will emerge at the top of the greasy pole, the unquestioned and unchallenged leader?

But what will they do from the top of their pole? Apart from pulling stunts like telling the tides to slow down, already tried by that illustrious predecessor King Canute, how can they make a difference? How does all the hot air generated at the top of the pole turn into something which feeds, clothes, houses - or even entertains the rest of us?

When I was small, the influential book at reference 3 was doing the rounds, popularising the notion that the country was really run by the civil service. Politicians come and go, 'strut and fret their hour upon the stage', but the civil service gets the job done. See reference 4. But also popularising the notion that politicians have a hard time of it implementing policies on which they may possibly have been elected but which the civil service, mysteriously exerting some collective personality and will, did not approve of. With the result that politicians and their advisors - aka kitchen cabinets - have been puzzling about how to manage down the civil servants ever since - while at the same time still needing them to do the work. A circle which we have yet to square here in the UK, although some think that making senior appointments in the civil service overtly political appointments, parachuting in friends and allies, is the way ahead. A sort of compromise between rule by front office and rule by back office.

Today, the FT tells us that Johnson is not that fussed, but that Gove and Cummings have got their bits between their teeth. They are going to do for what they call the blob, a term apparently lifted from some science fiction film of the 1950's. We shall see how they get on. 

But it leaves me glad to be out of it: even in the lower reaches of the service, being charged to do stuff which one believes is wrong - or at least mistaken - is neither satisfactory nor satisfying.

Reference 1: https://www.ancient.eu/Second_Triumvirate/.

Reference 2: Antony & Cleopatra - W. Shakespeare - 1607.

Reference 3: The Anatomy of Britain - Antony Sampson - 1962. A book which Wikipedia tells me ran to five more versions over the following 40 years.

Reference 4: Macbeth - W. Shakespeare - 1607. Act.V, Sc.V, Line.25. Lightly edited.

Reference 5: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-eminence.html. Previous notice of one of the triumvirs.