Coming back from my world cruise on the S.S. Happy Wanderer, I told myself that my knowledge of HM Revenue and Customs was now far too time-expired (our "out of date" as we used to say). But setting foot on English shores once more, I soon found that the likes of Jacob Rees Mogg were still trotting out the same old prejudices about civil servants, productivity and working from home. That's one good thing about starting from a base of no knowledge. It can never go out of date.  According to The Times of 10 January, MP's such as Harriet Baldwin of the Treasury committee have written to Jim Harra ( head of HMRC) after helplines were shut down last month due to IT problems. Despite being told that the shutdown was due to "a botched upgrade", the MP's still want to know , "if its working from home policy has caused a decline in its customer service helpline." Of course, Jim Harra will give them an answer. And they probably won't be satisfied wi...

  Mogg, following in the soggy footsteps of the shoe-chewing Francis Maude, wants to cut civil service jobs. Like most of his ilk, he doesn’t know what those civil servants do, or what the effect of cutting them would be. He just wants them gone. Mogg also thinks everyone should be working in the office. Give him his due – it’s not just the oiks that he wants back in the office – as Father of the House, he ordered MP’s back to Parliament and vetoed online debates, in 2020 when the Pandemic was at its height. The reasons Mogg gave were to  “restore the cut and thrust of debate” and to “set an example to the rest of the country.”  You might ask what kind of example the Commons sets for the country with their “cut and thrust” – or Bash Street Kids barracking – but you can at least see that Mogg is consistent. As a Conservative, he wants things to stay like they’ve always been. So, no surprise that at the end of April, he crept round Civil Service offices leaving “Sorry I Mis...