Public Service on the Brink

This book describes the denigration, unsuccessful reorganisation and general undermining of the public service and the public service, ethos over thirty or more years. The authors attempt to explain how this situation has become a given in modern political life in the UK.

Some of the contributors have direct recent or current experience in a wide range of the public service; there are three strands:

a description of the continuous change

the "what it feels like" to be a public servant in these times

an explanation of the phenomena in their field

Other contributors write from their particular expertise in this field, for example the leader of the largest civil service union and a journalist with a special interest in the press coverage of public services.

All the authors write passionately about what they see as the wanton destruction of a great public good.