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Spads. What do they do, why do they exist? Prompted by comment 
. There are a no of common complaints: 1. They donât do anything; 2. They do too much; 3. Theyâre all youths with no worldly experience; 4. They all end up being elected politicians. Let me explain. 1/18 https://twitter.com/JMPSimor/status/1310144343165079552
. There are a no of common complaints: 1. They donât do anything; 2. They do too much; 3. Theyâre all youths with no worldly experience; 4. They all end up being elected politicians. Let me explain. 1/18 https://twitter.com/JMPSimor/status/1310144343165079552
âThey donât do anythingâ. Spads are temporary civil servants. Unlike civil servants they are personal appointments of their minister, and usually leave with their minister. Unlike civil servants, they can be politically partisan. 2/18
Spads have been around for 40+yrs. Their nos have risen. Under Blair = 84 at peak. Now = 108. They are recognised in legislation. Successive select committees have agreed that spads are useful to ministers, and to govt. See eg: https://bit.ly/30eWyYh . Why are nos rising? 3/18
Ministers need them. Ministers are isolated and overloaded. Most ministers work absurd hrs and are faced with vast no of decisions. They are constantly firefighting. The reality of being a minister is being v busy. It is not easy for ministers, âeven for the moneyâ. 4/18
Spads support ministers. They can be subject experts. Coordinating with other depts/No 10. Liaise with the party and Parliament. Media and PR. Implementation. Chase progress. It depends on the ministerâs priorities. Itâs whatever the minister needs. 5/18
Ministers have civil servants. But civil servants are often generalists and not subject experts. Civil servants are expected to be politically impartial; spads can provide a political perspective that civil servants canât. 6/18
Civil servants may be concerned with their own depts; spads can think about broader govt goals. It is really hard sometimes to know what is happening in the rest of Whitehall. There are only so many hours in the day. 7/18
Finally, ministers usually donât choose their officials. Spads are a ministerâs own sole personal appointment (some of the time). Spads often know ministers better: they can help ensure a ministerâs priorities are met. 8/18
'all spads are young career politicians with no experience.' Well⊠The av age has been dropping (now about 33-35 on appointment) but it depends on the age of govt too. They come primarily from politics, media/PR, business and NGOs. 9/18
Many come from political parties, but thatâs partly b/c there are more jobs at Westminster than ever before. Also: the nature of the job excludes many: spads work v long hours, have short uncertain tenure (dismissed at will and usu leave with minister). 10/18
The kinds of ppl who can become spads are oft younger childless (usu male) types, w/t a mortgage; older and financially secure types. Both can accept sacrifices as investment. Many come from the policy sphere or from large corporations where stint in govt is beneficial. 11/18
'all spads end up as politicians'. No, a small minority (10%, see below). BUT the small minority who do have supercharged careers (eg., Ed Balls, David Cameron, the Miliband bros). Max Goplerud wrote on this here: https://bit.ly/2S37FyZ 12/18
'Spads have too much power.' Spads only have as much power as ministers give them. If Cummings has a lot of power, the person to criticise is the appointing, empowering minister: the PM. Ministers personally appoint spads; they are also responsible for their behaviour. 13/18
There are currently 108 spads in post. Who are they? See: https://bit.ly/3c9tYuz My point: not all are bad (or even known). Most donât need or want the publicity. The senior civil service numbers are around 5000 by comparison. 14/18
Tl;dr: spads have a legit role. They help overburdened ministers. They are not *that* young; they donât all do PR. A *small* no go into elected politics and have supercharged careers. Spads are only as powerful as their minister lets them be. 15/18
Yet these myths of spads continue. Itâs like saying âall lawyers defend the guilty and get rich off legal aidâ. Most lawyers arenât criminal lawyers; most arenât rich (what legal aid?). It treats a particular subset as representing the whole. 16/18
Wrote most of this while painting a crap twilight sparkle with the kid. So I feel itâs legit to post a link to the (cruelly underrated) book I wrote with Robert Hazell at the @ConUnit_UCL: https://amzn.to/3i50fpp . Lots of stats about spads! 17/18
@sebwhale also wrote about spads here: https://bit.ly/3j7XZit . Thereâs also the @IfG, @nickhillman, @timd_IFG who have written about spads. Finally: Pet peeve. Stop writing SpAd. Just write spad. 18/18
