One positive outcome of the Dominic Cummings saga has been that the entire country now knows about the previously rather shadowy role of special advisers – known in the corridors of power as Spads, and with as much unpredictability and potential for disaster as the SPADs we are more familiar with in the railway world (signals passed at danger).
They are not new, having been effectively invented by Harold Wilson with his ‘kitchen cabinet’ way back in the 1970s, but their role has been somewhat indistinct until now. According to the Cabinet Office, special advisers are civil servants, who can be paid more than £140,000 a year, although most seem to be in the £60,000 to £80,000 bracket. Nevertheless, the Department for Transport organisation chart, which boasts ‘a brilliant civil service’, despite listing all its ministers, senior staff and their direct reports, makes no mention of special advisers. In fact, Secretary of State Grant Shapps has two, Emma Barr and Rupert Reid, who came from the Centre for Policy Studies and the Policy Exchange respectively, both of which are centre-right think tank/pressure groups.
The latest Cabinet Office Report, dated 5 November (Guy Fawkes night – could that possibly …
