There is a growing sense both in Britain and abroad that standards of UK public life have fallen to an all-time low. In a recent speech, the former Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Sir John Major, stated:

If trust in our word is lost overseas, we may no longer be able to work effectively with friends and partners for mutual benefit – or even security. Unfortunately, that trust is being lost, and our reputation overseas has fallen because of our conduct. We are weakening our influence in the world.

And the Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, felt obliged to remind MPs that, ‘our words have consequences and we should always be mindful of that fact’. This was in response to intimidating and threatening behaviour experienced by the Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Foreign Secretary following comments by the Prime Minister which were deemed inappropriate (though not disorderly).

What we are seeing today is the consequence of decades of under-investment in public administration education, professional development, and research. Where there have been innovative policy experiments, they have typically taken place without formal evaluation and valuable learning has been lost. The potential creation of a Government Campus and Leadership College for Government offers some hope but only if the lessons from the RIPA, the Civil Service College, and the National School of Government (all now closed) are taken on board.

NB: This is a truncated version of a piece which appeared on the LSE British Politics and Policy blog here: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/public-administration-british-politics/ . It is based upon research published in Public Administration here and in the Handbook of Teaching Public Administration here.