When the announcement came that Ian Watmore was returning to the Cabinet Office as Chief Operating Officer of the Efficiency & Reform Group it was interesting to look back at his last words. He’s only been gone a year so things won’t have changed much, apart from the Ministers, that is!
Intriguingly, Philip Virgo, considering the same matter in his Computer Weekly blog, announcing it as “The return of the Jedi“, whilst he gets heavy and considers it in the context of Gibbons’ Decline of the Roman Empire. Philip then wonders whether Ian’s return brings us back to the ‘transformational government’ era or will we actually get the ‘new localism’ being promised.
I hope that having John Suffolk and Ian Watmore back together may bring about an era of ICT-enabled change rather than the heavy-handed slash and burn expected, although some big savings will still need to happen. John Suffolk’s blog has remained remarkably silent since before the election (16 April 2010), I wonder what he’s thinking?
In any case, Ian’s move shows things must have been bad at the FA. But in my view, definitely a case of “out of the frying pan into the fire.”
Posted by greatemancipator 
The Great E-mancipator 