Civil service needs a shake-up. Where have we heard that before?
Pat McFadden, the cabinet minister and Black Country MP, says the civil services is in need of a shake-up.
He says Whitehall needs to learn from the private sector, and become more creative and innovative. It needs to try new ideas, and has announced a £100 million 'innovation fund' to help achieve this.
This sounds not dissimilar to the 'hard rain' proposed by Dominic Cummings just four years ago. And we suspect that the present government will face the same difficulties as its predecessors in tackling this.
Mr McFadden is the latest in a long line of ministers to find the new government's ability to deliver its manifesto promises frustrated by the bureaucracy and entrenched positions of the state machine.
He is totally right to demand a change in the culture at Whitehall, and hope that his efforts do not go the same way as the countless ministers before him. And that the £100 million of taxpayers' money is not wasted.