Back in the 1980s, a loose cannon of a backbench MP called Alan Clark began recording in his diaries his experiences of becoming a junior minister for the first time. In his case, in the Department of Employment, a topic which he freely admitted he knew or cared little about.
His diary account of his treatment by a sceptical private secretary who clearly regarded him as useless and would deliberately test him to check he had read and understood the briefs in his red boxes makes hilarious reading. Many decades later another junior minister, the capable Rory Stewart, also gave an account in his book Politics On The Edge, of his experiences with civil servants. In his case he found them at times condescending, regarding ministers ‘as a necessary evil'.
