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Comment by charlieflowers | Hacker News Reader

Because it won't have any power. The person will just run around between meetings preaching about the right way to do things, while everyone else in the room rolls their eyes and ignores it.

The _main_ problem is not that the govt lacks the _knowledge_ about what to do ... it is that they lack the _will_ to do it.

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And if you take it on now, Brexit is going to happen and wreck everything, and also you'd have to deal with Dominic Cummings and his bizarre ideas.

Entirely this. Don't demand a competent practitioner with the illusion of authority when you're hiring for a patsy to take the fall for failure to deliver due to politics.

Couldn't agree more with this statement.

Also, professionally, if you find yourself in this environment: GTFO yesterday. It's toxic, and will take it's emotional toll over time. Especially if you're technically talented there's always a market for your skill... keep bouncing until you find a place that respects you as a professional/person.

This comment really hits home with me. I took a job similar to the one outlined, albeit in a political party and not government. It is taking an emotional toll on me. Very difficult to get any work done and expectations to perform are sky high. Difficult to do that though if you aren‘t allowed to....

I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted. I’ve seen this happen to several talented but overly trusting people. Sometimes it’s best to just keep your head down and admit that institutional dysfunction is beyond your capacity to change.

Also that they often lack the ability to do it, it's the legislative branch that makes the rules and budgets.

This isn't so much of a problem in the UK, where separation of powers is much weaker and the executive have a nearly-built-in legislative majority.

Of course, that does bring other problems...

Realistically there is almost no separation between executive and legislature; the PM can order both what to do because they're the same party. And these days it's run from the Cabinet office.

The only limitation is the semi-independence of the civil service, which Cummings intends to erase, and the possibility of judicial review of really bad decisions, which may be curtailed soon.

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