"The average civil servant thinks that cities only ever ask for one of three things in devolution deals: things they can already do, things that don't make any difference, and things they bloody well can't have".
I think that would make public servants want to stay with taxis even though they're a bit more expensive.
You've decided to take a break from government; do you think that's important for public servants?
"Look, I'm investing the money for Colorado teachers, Colorado firemen," he continued, "New Jersey civil servants, Montana, Missouri, New York State teachers, Oregon, Washington; that's who the investors are, and I don't think that's really gotten through very clearly".
"I think that's an honourable thing to do with someone who's been such a good servant and said he'd stay with Burnley in the Premier League.
He thinks that is a "disaster" for civil servants.
I am incapable of understanding how a public servant can think that a journalist and her pen are more dangerous than all of the cartels he's supposedly combating. .
The problem, he argues, lies instead with the culture of a department that does not seek out and promote talent, and in which civil servants "tend to think that writing policy papers for ministers comes first, writing legislation second and fixing problems third".
Because that's exactly what any sensible person — including, in this case, government civil servants — thinks of when they hear the term sharing economy.
Conceived during the Blitz and the Normandy landings, it is remarkable to think that civil servants and ministers were focused on post-war reconstruction in order to build, as they saw it, the new Jerusalem.
