Like X Men, Special Advisors are Taking Over
26 Jul 2006
Ministers have again rejected the idea of a watchdog to curb the activities of special advisers. Yet under New Labour the number of such appointees has reached an alltime high: they have doubled since Tony Blair took office, at a cost to the taxpayer of Pounds 5.9 million a year. These Whitehall mutants are regarded with suspicion by ordinary humans. Yet they are far from having supernatural powers. In fact, most do not know much about anything. And this singles out the New Labour breed.There have always been special advisers in government. But in the past they were experts, like Harold Wilson's famous Keynesian economists, Nicky Kaldor and Tommy Balogh. By contrast, New Labour's special advisers have typically never done a proper job. Instead they move seamlessly between the worlds of Whitehall, journalism and influence-peddling.
Moreover, they do not restrict themselves simply to advising ministers. They give speeches, chair meetings and issue instructions to civil servants. In truth, they are more important than most MPs. In some government departments they are more important than the junior ministers. Yet they are unelected and unaccountable. One notable example was John Birt, until last year the Prime Minister's strategy adviser on various subjects. He knew about television. But, bizarrely, Tony Blair took him on principally to advise on transport. Try as she might, even the redoubtable chair of the Transport Select Committee, Gwyneth Dunwoody, was unable to get Birt to appear in front of MPs. Perhaps he suspected he'd embarrass himself.
You could argue that a special adviser is merely a harmless comfort blanket for the minister concerned. But Pounds 5.9 million is a lot to spend on people to hold ministers' hands. And the rise of the special adviser has coincided with a decline in the importance of Parliament and Cabinet government. Increasingly, the highest levels of government resemble a hall of mirrors where special advisers reflect back to ministers what they want to hear. Some of the Government's most disastrous decisions have surfaced from this delusional environment. Meanwhile, civil servants (who are in possession of at least some of the facts) and MPs (who actually talk to the public) can only look on helplessly.
Like the X Men, special advisers are marching on. A whole generation including David Miliband, James Purnell and Andy Burnham are emerging as New Labour ministers. But the most prominent former special adviser of all is the Tory leader, David Cameron. Perhaps they really are taking over.
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