The Blob: How the civil service beat Boris

Britain is governed by The Blob. No, I’m not talking about Boris Johnson or his ministers, but instead the amorphous conglomerate of civil servants, academics, and charities that work together to push policies they prefer and block changes they dislike. The name was borrowed from the 1958 horror movie, where an oozing alien starts to envelop everything in sight, growing ever larger in the process. The British Blob behaves in much the same way.

Watch the full film fronted by the researcher Sam Ashworth-Hayes.

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[julieoxtoby]

If a 80 strong majority of Conservtatives cannot sort the blob out?? Boris is missing so many things like this his carelessness is breath taking he could do so much for the country i've lost my hope in him someone with a real sense of the country could do so much,

[nathilism]

This video is contradictory. First it states that the civil service is lacking in diversity, then the narrator and civil servants start complaining about the promotion of diversity and inclusion. Make up your mind.

[elizabethmackenzie]

We know all this but it is the first time someone has set it out and published it. Well done DT.

[morsmagne]

I work for NICE and 'the blob' doesn't exist there. I think that's because the official tasks we're given give our lives sufficient meaning. I can imagine that the purpose of other government departments isn't so well defined, so that vaccume gets filled with other things.

[sungpo-yu]

How the civil service revealed a liar and rule breaker.

[thavaseelannarayanan]

The civil servant look like a secrets state that is running country rather than the politician.

[alecnorton]

Great expose. But only really scratches the surface unfortunately. These people are evil.

[melanie-krng]

I think ALL UK media outlets should have a blanket ban on Harry & Meghan for the next couple of weeks to make a statement, and out of respect for the Queen. What better way of showing love and support for the service she’s devoted to our country. Focus on her only. Make it all about her, as it should be. Show her that we, as a country are all behind her. Let’s get patriot! PLEASE! 🙏🏼👑🇬🇧

[daijones]

So basically "Yes, Minister" is true.

[jamsteracton]

"Most civil servants are London based, they're Whitehall based". No, actually, only 1 in 10 civil servants are london based.

[njd]

DEI has made the blob bigger and more inefficient (despite how difficult that may seem to be to the non-blobby).

[al]

It's worth saying here that research has shown that a govement only needs a tax take of around 15% GDP to run a country far more efficiently than ours is today. This is evidenced from experience in Asia particularly Singapore, and organisation manpower studies carried out for running an army which parallels running a country. Our tax take is currently running at around 45% GDP, so we know we are wasting around 30% of the nation's resources every year through misallocation of resources by the Civil service. What we should be doing is investing that money for the population in a wealth fund like Finland has done to support our futures, then there would be plenty of money for everyone.

[Ventura]

This is really astonishingly biased and doesn´t mention any other explanations for the failures of the tory party which might have something to do with tory politics.

[MrDavidht]

I was seconded into an MoD office for 2 years, the civil servants were very ordinary and work shy. Their manager was spending office time working on his investment portfolio and setting up a property company. I thought them wholly unprofessional, totally vindicated by the goings on in number 10.

[sjt]

I'm most interested to know when Boris gets beaten by a bat.

[julianshepherd]

The Civil Service warned that the Poll Tax would be a shambles.
And stop quoting yes Minister. Its satire. A deliberate exaggeration to make a point not a effing documentary.

[GT-tjqg]

Gosh, it's worse than I thought!

[michaelbayer]

To an outsider (I'm American) it seems the British Civil Service is a meritocracy since it recruits the best (they can find) from universities on promotes based on standards. While I support democracy, it also seems British politicians are hardly representative as they come from wealthy, established families and attended more prestigious and exclusive schools, yet these politicians only play at populism. Sorry, but I have more faith in institutions than politicians.
Also, Mr. Davis states the civil service "did not know where Brexit came from". I think we know now. It came from Moscow.

[mystero]

To be fair to the telegraph, they have to choose a new boogeyman now they can’t blame all this on the EU.

[cizlerable]

Some oppinions on what is progress are wrong. There is no upside to Brexit that weighs up to the downside. A civil service is about what is correct. How does society work optimally. The problem is not the Blob. The problem is the politician.