The intimacy of power

The United Kingdom, famously, does not have a written constitution. Rather, our political system has been shaped not by revolution, foreign invasion or dictatorship but by a series of principles and conventions that have emerged and been tested, then accepted. But one part of that system has never received any detailed scrutiny: the private office – the small group made up mainly of civil servants who support and advise every minister of the Crown, from the Prime Minister down to the most junior of ministers. Private secretaries inevitably have, by dint of their access to ministers and the Prime Minister, massive influence. However, in recent years, ministerial pressures for a politicised private office have inevitably brought the civil service into conflict with the government. In this book, Alun Evans describes what the private office is and why it matters.

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