Last Friday, Peter Mandelson took a break from abolishing capitalism to address the country's top 200 mandarins at the civil service training centre in Sunningdale. Towards the end of a private session marked by jokes about
Ed Balls and a prayer for the survival of New Labour, he was asked how Whitehall should prepare for the eventuality of a Conservative government. His answer was unequivocal: those present had a duty to embrace the Tories as soon as possible and make the transition a success.
Handovers are not normally a subject ministers are prepared to consider. Our "on yer bike" political culture of sudden death and removal vans at the back door has never left much room for considered planning. Power is surrendered in tears, never bequeathed gracefully.
Those who have it refuse to contemplate defeat; encouraging officials to consort with the enemy would be tantamount to admitting the inevitability of surrender. In turn, those seeking power are terrified of being thought complacent or presumptuous. Woe betide the politician caught measuring the drapes.
So British transitions have been a discreet thing, managed – if that can be the word – away from the public gaze with whispers and winks. A fossilised process exists, left over from the 1960s, for contacts between the Opposition and Whitehall. This is allowed only as long as the Prime Minister approves, and nothing says it has to achieve anything.
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