Eddie Barnes: Sir Peter Housden did not help himself in one ill-judged comment

This colourful mandarin exemplifies all that is British in our very British civil service, writes Eddie Barnes

SHOULD he ever choose to write them, Sir Peter Housden’s memoirs would be an excellent read. Thanks to the regular leaking of his internal blogs, which have included subjects such as his yoga class and visits to the opera, we know the Scottish Government’s Permanent Secretary has an engaging writing style.

And with his fly on the wall view of the SNP government, the content wouldn’t be bad too. Given his conflicting role at such a time, a suggested titled might be “Man in the Middle”.

On one level, his job is straight-forward. It was explained by Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the UK Civil Service, in a meeting with Scottish civil servants last week. Asked about the constitutional conflict between London and Edinburgh, he noted that “we’re well used to serving elected ministers of the day, whether in the Scottish Government or the UK government”.

Civil servants should do that with “integrity and openness, giving honest and direct advice and professional support”, he said.

All so orderly. But these are not ordinary times. One Scottish civil servant, discussing the matter internally last month, noted: “This is an issue unlike any other we have had to grapple with in terms of our position as citizens and our impartiality as civil servants.”

It isn’t, in other words, about pushing the case for banning smoking.

Led with iron discipline by Alex Salmond, his circle of advisers, and the cabinet, St Andrew’s House is now focused entirely on a two-year long political campaign selling the case for independence. In certain cases, those civil servants who have found that their “honest and direct advice” is not that convenient have decided to find alternative employment. Others, including Sir Peter, are relishing the challenge.

Yet, the critics complain, he is employed by the British Civil Service....why is he seeking to hasten its end? Inevitably, he has fallen foul of claims he has “gone native”.

Sir Peter did not help himself in one ill-judged comment that the UK government’s Scotland Bill proposals were “lost in the mists of time”.

But he can console himself that, as he seeks to retain his balance as he walks this tightrope, just about anyone would have come in for pelters.

Furthermore, there is the counter-factual point. The storm whipped up by the SNP at the weekend over the BBC “ban” on Alex Salmond opining about the Scotland v England rugby match offers a glimpse of the row that would be wrought if the British Civil Service also were to be viewed as obstructing the case for independence.

Under Sir Peter’s leadership, that charge most certainly cannot be made. To the contrary, it seems that the arguments for and against independence have been deemed less important than ensuring the survival of the Civil Service’s reputation for fairness. How very British.