The Loss of Reform Zeal in the Civil Service

The head count of the civil service is back up to pre austerity levels. Why successive government's been so unable to tackle what they see as an issue? I put this question to a number of current and former government aides and one of them just sighed, he said. It was a tragedy of Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson was that they had that kind of zeal, but priorities took over, they had COVID. The inquiry is going to go on for years. We're not supposed to be getting any kind of result from the COVID inquiry until 2026. This is bad for public health because we need to learn lessons much faster than that. But also, I just don't think the