Civil servants should not be pushed to politics

The permanent secretary at Stormont’s health department has written to the UK health minister.

Peter May warned of the catastrophe that could flow from ongoing strikes.

While Mr May was careful to explain that there were two sides to the dispute, including a government perspective that high pay deals could further push up inflation, his intervention can be read in different ways.

The representative of the Unison union Patricia McKeown strongly criticised Mr May when she appeared on BBC radio, seeming to interpret the letter as an implied criticism of strikers.

But Mr May’s words could just as easily be read as putting pressure on the UK government to accede to the pay demands, and thus subtly currying favour with those who are taking action.

This shows the perils of civil servants ever becoming involved in anything that even remotely smacks of a political decision.

That situation in turn arises from the failure of London to take control of Northern Ireland in the form of direct rule, and rejecting Irish demands for an increased say over the Province in such an eventuality.

It is intolerable that civil servants have again been put in the position of possible political decision making.

Even if they behave with overwhelming impartiality, people or groups or politicians or activists will spot moments or real or perceived bias that will inflict great harm on the reputation of the civil service.

Mr May has been put in a position where he effectively cannot comment on the strikes, but that in turn makes it hard for him even to write down advice on the strikes, given the aforementioned scope for mis-interpretation.

The current strikes are among the most bitterly divided political questions of today and should be for MLAs alone, or in their absence Westminster alone.