<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body>Andy<div><br></div><div>You're entirely right, but it's been my experience that middle management - the "subject matter experts" - don't stand up for themselves against conservative and often stupid senior management. </div><div><br></div><div>This leads to good advice being either ignored or not ever provided. The boorish attitudes prevalent in the senior reaches of the Civil Service have also led to entirely stupid decisions. </div><div><br></div><div>Since the Civil Service largely run the country - irrespective of the colour of the government - little will ever change. When applying for a fairly senior post in an arm of the Civil Service, the interviewers were more interested in which Public School I attended rather than my actual qualifications for the job! It was at that point the I decided that I would stay in the private sector. </div><div><br></div><div>Chris</div><div><br></div><div style="font-size:100%;color:#000000"><!-- originalMessage --><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Andy Smith via GLLUG <gllug@mailman.lug.org.uk> </div><div>Date: 25/06/2018 02:15 (GMT+01:00) </div><div>To: gllug@mailman.lug.org.uk </div><div>Cc: Andy Smith <andy@bitfolk.com> </div><div>Subject: Re: [GLLUG] IT for the NHS and General Practices </div><div><br></div></div>On Sun, Jun 24, 2018 at 06:22:09PM +0000, Marcus Harriott via GLLUG wrote:<br>> All public employees ( for they are not workers...) are retards.<br><br>No they are not. Please don't be so offensive towards people who<br>work for the government.<br><br>If you want counter examples, see GDS. They were responsible for<br>building the passport renewal service amongst a large number of<br>other things. I renewed my passport this year, online, using a photo<br>from my own phone, and the new passport turned up in 9 days. It was<br>an excellent user experience.<br><br>Sadly, changes at GDS have perhaps stymied any further good work<br>they may be able to do, and that's the typical story. I would prefer<br>to believe that there are some talented and hard-working people<br>being let down by leadership and vested interests outside of their<br>control.<br><br>I don't know how we expect anything to get any better if we just<br>blanket label all public employees with a pejorative that does not<br>belong on this list.<br><br>Regards,<br>Andy<br><br>-- <br>GLLUG mailing list<br>GLLUG@mailman.lug.org.uk<br>https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug</body></html>