Is it me, or do we have a Government that's actually... governing?

One of the things about working in the public sector is that, for the most part, what you really need is a clear, decisive steer on what is required of you. Applying an existing legal framework to that gives you a platform for delivering whatever it is that you are asked to deliver, and allows you to, hopefully, make effective use of your time and of public resources.

And, if your leaders have a reasonably consistent and definable philosophy, even when you aren't given precise instructions, you can probably work out for yourself what they would want you to do.

One of the problems that the outgoing Conservative administration had was that they appeared to have no logical thread left. Decisions were made on the apparent basis of the prejudices of the senior figure calling the shots, and they became hard to predict. Combine that with a (very) thinly-veiled contempt for the people tasked with delivering, and a constant churn of ministers and you ended up with some pretty poor governance.

I should emphasise at this point that good governance does not equal "things that I support and/or approve of". That shouldn't be how public servants operate in a civil service ecosystem. Politicians govern, civil servants deliver*.

So, it is a promising sign when an incoming Prime Minister explicitly states that he has respect for the Civil Service. And, whether that lasts or not, it offers some hope that, in pursuing their agenda, a Labour administration will operate within the confines of the constitutional framework and the law, if you like, re-establishing the guardrails of our constitution so badly damaged by, in particular, the Johnson administration.

Governments have a vast array of tools with which to pursue any agenda. Much of the power they need already exists in legislation, or can be addressed by a simple change of priority. There is, I'd suggest, an argument for focussing on managing what already exists rather than writing new statute, although, as Ros often says, when you have the hammer of legislation, all problems look like nails.

The forthcoming King's Speech will give us a strong steer on how the incoming Government will operate over the next five years or so, but as someone who appreciates good governance more than most, the portents look more promising than they have at any time in the past five years. For that, I for one am grateful.

* terms and conditions, i.e. the Civil Service Code, apply...