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by chrisseaton 1601 days ago
> setting up a skunkworks group that answered directly to the PM

Isn't that massively excessive? Why does the Prime Minister need to be spending his time listening to a report direct from a team implementing software services?
4 comments
toyg 1601 days ago
Because otherwise the effort will end up in the quagmire of civil service politics, the sort of stuff you see on "Yes Minister" (greatly exaggerated, of course, in the same way "Silicon Valley" exaggerates Californian startup culture).

With a direct line to the PM, every time a mandarin tried to block things (likely in order to favour his golf buddies from this or that vendor), GDS could go "ok, shall we take it up with the PM then?" and that would be the end of it.

It's effectively the nuclear option, in terms of civil-service management, but sometimes it's the only way to get stuff done.

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djhn 1600 days ago
> greatly exaggerated, of course, in the same way "Silicon Valley" exaggerates Californian startup culture

Which is another way of saying it conveys the reality more realistically than a documentary could ever get away with.

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blitzar 1599 days ago
> every time a mandarin tried to block things (likely in order to favour his golf buddies from this or that vendor)

There seems to be a much longer history of MPs and PMs being corrupt than the mandarins.

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axg11 1601 days ago
Gov.uk is _the_ primary way that anyone interacts with the UK government. Why shouldn't it be one of the highest priority aspects of government? I don't think the Prime Minister was sitting in on daily standups and sprint planning, but it makes sense that they should have a good overview of progress and development in GDS during its infancy.
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rswail 1601 days ago
Effectively it was in the PM's department directly, which means it was not subject to cross-department jealousies etc. Watch some series of Yes Minister, even though set in the 1970s and 80s, it's still all true.
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BoxOfRain 1601 days ago
The Thick of It is supposedly not far from the reality either.
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toyg 1601 days ago
Armando Iannucci is a national treasure and a credit to the Italian diaspora (and to Scotland).
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BoxOfRain 1601 days ago
If anyone deserves a knighthood for services to comedy, Iannucci would be one of my top contenders!
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xboxnolifes 1601 days ago
If there is an alternative approach that has been showing similar or better results, I'm ears.
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