Why is Boris cutting the civil service?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

Daily News, News, Politics

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The government wants to cut the civil service by over 90,000 people to 2016 levels. Part of the plan is to suspend the Fast Stream recruitment scheme, which hires high-achieving graduates out of university. Why is the government so set on the cut, and is this really the best way to do it? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.

James Forsyth: 'If these graduates go and work in the private sector instead, frankly the civil service won't be able to afford them in three, five or seven years time.'

Subscribe to The Spectator's Evening Blend, Britain's most-read politics email, to get an update on the day's politics every weeknight: https://www.spectator.co.uk/blend

And subscribe to The Spectator magazine too. To celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, you can subscribe to 10 weeks of The Spectator, in print and online, for just £1. We'll also send you a commemorative tea towel to commemorate the occasion. To claim the offer, which ends on Monday, go to: https://www.spectator.co.uk/jubilee

Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.

For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This podcast is sponsored by Canacord Genuity Wealth Management,
0:04.3	award-winning wealth managers who go above and beyond to support and guide you.
0:09.1	Visit candewelth.com to start building your wealth with confidence.
0:17.9	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the spectators' daily politics podcast.
0:21.6	I'm Cindy Yu and I'm joined by James Lassyth and Fraser Nelson.
0:25.2	So James, yesterday on the podcast we talked about this trickle of letters going into
0:29.3	Graham Brady. How does the situation look 24 hours later? Any better?
0:33.6	Well, there's still a fairly steady trickle of letters going in.
0:38.6	There is now an increasing view that this is when, not if, in terms of confidence, ballot.
0:44.7	I think there is an interesting division. For some things to realise this, this is not
0:48.9	some coordinated plot. There is not some mastermind sitting with a spreadsheet saying,
0:53.4	today you published your last episode of this afternoon, you do yours.
0:57.9	That actually creates a situation. It's only one form minister who very much
1:01.2	wants to speak to the Tory party needs a new leader. I'm telling you that I'm saying
1:04.8	that people don't put your letter in until after these by-elections, because if you put your
1:08.5	letter in before and you have the vote as soon as parliament comes back from recess,
1:13.0	Boris Johnson is more likely to win it. I think the problem for the Tory party is it is
1:17.2	fundamentally splitter on this leadership question. I think if there is a no confidence vote,
1:21.1	which I think is now more likely than not, those you talk to those who know the Parliament
1:25.0	party best, they think the most likely result is that Boris Johnson wins it, but by a narrow
1:29.5	amount and then Theresa May did in 2018. That is obviously going to leave the Tory party deeply
1:34.4	divided. I think one of the other problems is, it's quite obvious that in the next election,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Spectator and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.