Of SpAds and civil servants
A small frisson of excitement in the unpromising-looking Committee Stage debate on the in the Commons today.
MPs are discussing the section on the Civil Service, which includes regulations governing the conduct of Special Advisors, (SpAds) the political appointees who advise ministers.
Should they have the right to issue orders to civil servants? (There was a Royal Order in Council issued to empower Alastair Campbell to do so, when he became the media supremo in Tony Blair's Downing Street.)
Should they be banned from authorising the spending of public money? Should their code of conduct be made statutory? Should they be banned from any role in the appraisal or promotion of civil servants? Should their numbers be capped to stop the public paying for an ever-expanding class of appointed political officials?
Hopes dashed
The Liberal Democrats David Howarth and David Heath are behind the last one. And my spies tell me that, should the Conservatives decide to favour it, Labour's high command has at least discussed the idea of letting it through - thereby squelching the career hopes of various SpAds-apparent, who're expecting to follow their shadow minister into government.
And the same goes for any number of other restrictions that would be just as irksome to the next government as they would be for the current one - a future Labour opposition might rather enjoy seeing a future Conservative government squirming in a hair shirt of its own tailoring.
Mind you, the Conservatives might retort that all such manoeuvres prove is that the government's expecting to lose.
Of course with a fairly tough guillotine in force, limiting the time available for debate, those amendments may never be reached.... I'll report back.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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