TRIGGERnometry Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: How the Civil Service Ruined Britain
Release Date: February 19, 2026
Hosts: Konstantin Kisin, Francis Foster
Key Guests: Steve Baker, Matt Ridley, James Delingpole, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Toby Young, Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi, Douglas Murray

Overview

This episode features a robust examination of the UK civil service, exploring how its entrenched bureaucracy, politicization, and resistance to reform have contributed to governmental inertia and policy gridlock. Drawing on personal experiences from former ministers, political commentators, and journalists, the discussion critiques the culture, incentives, and accountability structures within the civil service, assessing their impact on democracy, public policy, and national priorities.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bureaucracy, Red Tape, and Regulatory Bloat

• Steve Baker (02:38): Recalls participating in government efforts to reduce regulation. The initial approach was to only keep essential regulations and cut the rest, but resistance from within the civil service made substantial change impossible.
  • Memorable story: An entire meeting was spent debating the necessity of flammable pajamas regulation for one gender.

    "We had almost the entire meeting just on one thing... regulations about flammable pajamas... a parody. That was the first meeting. I just thought, this is it. They know how to grind you down, and there's always more of them than there are of you, and they can always generate more paper and you'll never win this battle." (05:17, Steve Baker)

  • Conclusion: Baker concludes that the only way to deliver on promises of reducing bureaucracy is to greatly shrink the civil service:

    "Not because they're doing a bad job, but because actually it shouldn't be so centralized. You shouldn't have this giant bureaucracy... even if they've got good intentions... the cumulative effect is just this nightmare." (06:46, Steve Baker)

2. Civil Service Culture & Political Leanings

• Matt Ridley (08:06): Suggests that the dominance of left-leaning civil servants is problematic only when they resist implementing the policies of elected governments.

  “The problem comes when you see yourself as a protector or a guardian of the UK and someone comes in with a policy that they deem to be right wing and you say you’re not gonna enact it, then... you’re subverting the will of the people.” (08:15, Matt Ridley)

• Steve Baker (08:34): Affirms that civil servants may unconsciously subvert political will due to institutional inertia and a belief in their own expertise over elected mandates.

  “It’s almost grandiosity... we know how it works, you can’t possibly do that. There’s definitely a lot of that.” (08:34, Steve Baker)

3. Impediments to Reform & Accountability

• Michael Gove (09:17): Shares the impossibility of removing underperforming civil servants and states that many high performers are themselves frustrated by obstructive colleagues.
  • Performance management woes:

    “I remember asking my department, how many people have we sacked since the department started? And I was told none, ever. And I thought that that was extraordinary.” (09:54, Michael Gove)

  • Incentives & depoliticization: Advocates for overhauling incentives and for introducing more, not less, politics into the civil service, arguing that supposed neutrality has already been abandoned, with real power now resting in quangos and regulatory bodies beyond democratic control.

4. Civil Service Priorities versus National Interests

• Priti Patel (12:30): Describes the UK as being effectively run by the civil service, not politicians, emphasizing how operational decisions can ignore essential outcomes.
  • War example: A team of civil servants handling the Syrian conflict was moved to East Kilbride to aid local regeneration and meet climate goals, crippling their effectiveness in national security meetings.

    “Our civil service machine is brilliant at prioritizing secondary issues and taking away from the fundamental question, which is what is the most effective way of delivering what matters to the country?” (15:19, Priti Patel)

5. Secrecy, Anonymity, and Internal Pushback

• Toby Young (15:29): Critiques civil servants’ aversion to personal accountability and describes the “Seen in the Civil Service” network as a rare example of internal pushback.
  • Quote:

    “The thing that civil servants hate most is when they’re named. They never want to be named in stories, they always want to remain anonymous...” (15:30, Toby Young)

  • Gender critical issues: Details bullying of gender-critical staff, highlighting internal cultural wars and the existence of 93 diversity and inclusion networks within the MOD alone.
  • Media’s role: Journalism and leaks can expose misconduct, but much resistance now comes from within.

6. Policy Paralysis & The Democratic Deficit

• James Delingpole (21:35): Challenges politicians on repeated failures to fulfill electoral promises (e.g., immigration), wondering who actually blocks change: civil servants, politicians, or other bodies?

• Sajid Javid (22:18): Reveals that internal political resistance (including from the Treasury and even the Prime Minister) is often the main barrier, even more than administrative obstacles.

  “Technically, it’s very easy to do, actually... You just have to take an administrative and executive decision... And unfortunately, I was met with a lot of resistance from around the Cabinet table.” (22:54, Sajid Javid)

  • Specific example: His proposal to raise the salary threshold for foreign workers was stonewalled by Treasury officials.

7. Power Shift to Non-Democratic Institutions

• Nadhim Zahawi (25:19): Describes the growing dominance of unelected bodies—Bank of England, OBR, Environment Agency, courts—as an existential threat to British democracy.

  “It’s not democratic enough, there’s no doubt about that... people who are not democratically accountable are effectively making decisions. And I think that’s a problem.” (25:26, Nadhim Zahawi)

• Challenges of Ministerial Agency (26:56): Even as a Secretary of State, substantial policy obstacles remain due to civil service culture and external lobbying.

  • Childcare deregulation: Civil service and external sectoral interests diluted or blocked reforms, using procedural delay rather than explicit rejection.

    “No one ever says, no, we’re not going to implement the policy. What they do is they take a long time about it. It’s sometimes called consent and evade.” (28:12, Nadhim Zahawi)

8. Prospects for Radical Reform

• Douglas Murray (30:27): Outlines the challenge facing any would-be radical reformer (like Nigel Farage): not just electoral victory, but the far more daunting task of wresting control from the civil service ("the Blob") and pushing through transformative change.

  “That’s Farage’s massive challenge... to seize control of the British state and actually impose the sort of change once in a generation... You’d have to change everything, right? Scrap tons of laws, restructure the constitution, completely change the Civil Service, which is completely broken.” (31:00, Douglas Murray)

  • Recent failures: Liz Truss and Donald Trump are used as examples of political leaders pushed out or defeated by bureaucratic resistance due to lack of preparation and insufficient personnel.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Comment | |-----------|----------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 05:17 | Steve Baker | “We had almost the entire meeting just on one thing... regulations about flammable pajamas... a parody.”| | 09:35 | Michael Gove | “...the point I was making is that we shouldn't put all civil servants in a bucket. There are some great people... but there are bad eggs in any organization... they should be removed.” | | 12:30 | Priti Patel | “Britain isn’t really run by politicians, it’s run by our civil service.... Our civil service machine is brilliant at prioritizing secondary issues and taking away from the fundamental question.” | | 15:30 | Toby Young | “The thing that civil servants hate most is when they’re named. They never want to be named in stories, they always want to remain anonymous.” | | 22:54 | Sajid Javid | “Technically, it’s very easy to do... You just have to take an administrative and executive decision... And unfortunately, I was met with a lot of resistance from around the Cabinet table.” | | 25:26 | Nadhim Zahawi | “It’s not democratic enough, there’s no doubt about that... people who are not democratically accountable are effectively making decisions.” | | 28:12 | Nadhim Zahawi | “No one ever says, no, we’re not going to implement the policy. What they do is they take a long time about it. It’s sometimes called consent and evade.” | | 31:00 | Douglas Murray | “That’s Farage’s massive challenge...to seize control of the British state and actually impose the sort of change once in a generation... You’d have to change everything...” |

Key Segment Timestamps

• [02:38] Bureaucracy & failed attempts to cut regulation (Steve Baker)
• [08:06] Civil service politicization and its impact (Matt Ridley, Steve Baker)
• [09:17] Accountability and firing bad civil servants (Michael Gove)
• [12:30] Civil service priorities vs effective government (Priti Patel)
• [15:29] Secrecy, internal culture wars, and “Seen in the Civil Service” (Toby Young)
• [21:35] Repeated failures to deliver on policy and migration (James Delingpole, Sajid Javid)
• [25:06] The democratic deficit and institutional barriers (Nadhim Zahawi)
• [28:03] Consent and evade – How civil servants block policies (Nadhim Zahawi)
• [30:27] The challenge of real reform after elections (Douglas Murray)

Conclusion

This episode offers a frank, sometimes exasperated critique of how the British civil service—by means of its insularity, procedural delays, and resistance to political direction—undermines democracy and thwarts genuine policy reform. Participants agree that while many civil servants mean well, the system as a whole is self-replicating, politicized, and unaccountable, requiring deep structural change if government is ever to reflect the will of the electorate.