10 Downing Street - Dods Monitoring

David Cameron
would do well to
study the creation of
the Policy Unit and
the Central Policy
Review Staff by the
Heath (left) and
Wilson governments
have believed, because the strategic direction
of a government can only be set by a prime
Minister. Conviction and purpose endow a
prime Minister with direction and drive, but the
capacity to apply these to specific fields of policy
requires support from dedicated officials. This
is what the Strategy Unit provided to David
Cameron’s predecessors, and by abolishing it
he denuded himself of something important.
Indeed, you might argue that a Conservative
leader cut from the cloth of Baldwin and Heath,
Successful government
requires strategic thinking at
the centre, even during periods
of crisis management
rather than peel and Thatcher, is in more need,
not less, of strategic support.
The configuration of the No10 operation,
and its effectiveness, change with each prime
Minister. The civil service provides continuity,
particularly in the private Office, to ensure that
transitions between prime Ministers are handled
smoothly, but the balance of power within
No10, and how well it relates to parliament
and Whitehall, vary as individuals come and
go. This makes the argument for institutional
stability on the core functions of strategic
policymaking and political policy advice more
convincing. Although the 1970s are often
considered a dysfunctional decade in the recent
history of British government, the creation of
the policy Unit and the Central policy review
Staff by the Wilson and Heath governments
represented institutional innovation whose
worth endured. It is a history lesson David
Cameron would do well to learn.
Nick Pearce is director of ippr. He was head of the
Downing Street Policy Unit from 2008 to 2010
AprIl 2012 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 39