Guest blog: Special advisers - the unelected lynchpin

Some of the blame can be laid at the door of The Thick of It, Armando Iannucci’s superlative satire based on foul mouthed Whitehall mediocrities. Much of the rest stems from how “spads” are only normally heard about when dragged wriggling into the light, usually for some scandal or clumsy misdemeanour. The special adviser myth would not have gained such currency if it did not contain an element of truth. Spads are cunning indeed: given the odds against any political venture or media caper, they cannot afford to be otherwise. They do indeed work in the shadows, but this is a virtue: a national media profile is a good sign that an adviser is not doing his job for the right reasons. Politics is a game of manipulation, because it involves changing people’s minds and forcing their decisions. But for the same reason special advisers are essential to the workings of Westminster and Whitehall. Politics heroic myth is all about bold men and women standing firm to their principles, where the issues are drawn with a confident hand and the right way forward is crystal clear to people of virtue. In reality it is all about compromise, the probing of mutually incompatible positions, and always in a fog of ignorance and uncertainty. Moreover, while those who make it to the top in politics are usually exceptional – and normally in a way that is praiseworthy – they tend to be possessed of a level self confidence that impedes recognition of more complex realities. They seldom have time to sit back and think, and exist in an environment where the most belittling words to caught uttering are “I don’t know”. In other words, politics is a world of messy half-blind negotiation between assertive, power hungry and pressured individuals, promoted to levels of massive responsibility. For this world to function at all, it needs dedicated, wily go-betweens. That is one definition of the special adviser. There could be many more definitions, and the pamphlet I have written – The Unelected Lynchpin – only presents my version. I had the privilege of working for Vince Cable at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). There my job was to intermediate between dozens of different incompatible special interests over any number of disparate policy areas. I had to use pretty much every jot of experience I had picked up in business, academia and the world of think tanks, and even then often felt out of my depth, particularly at the beginning. Any adviser who did not feel this way is likely to have been committing the same sins of overconfidence found in the political class. But I had a wonderful time, which I hope is captured in my pamphlet. To work as special adviser is a tremendous privilege. Most people do not attain such a level of responsibility within politics after many years of trying. To be a spad is to see the inner workings of a world that very few witness. The side I saw was in many ways less overtly political than might be expected. Much of what happens in BIS is technical rather than controversial. But when it crossed political boundaries and entered the arena of the political bargain, I can honestly say it was as enthralling a job as it is possible to be. I write about two of the more interesting controversies from just a few months of my time in position – the arguments about the Beecroft Report into employment law, and a reform to executive pay. I think such case studies can play a useful role in showing people the inner workings of politics – I would urge the Institute for Government to commission more of them. I hope that those of you who plough through my pamphlet find it as educational as I found it amusing to write.