Foreign office defends elitist system By Anthea Hall and Sally Malcolm -Smith The Daily Telegraph
The
old guard at the Foreign Office is mobilizing to fight government
plans to abolish one of the principal tenets of Civil Service faith:
fast stream entry into the Diplomatic Service.
In
the wake of radical proposals that would "end what critics
condemn as a divisive entry system separating the "officers"
from "other ranks", old hands rallied yesterday to defend
the status quo.
Sir
Michael Palliser, former head of the Diplomatic Service, said: "The
general implication is that elitism is a good thing — as long as
entry is open to everybody."
The
present system recruits high-flyers into an A-stream from which
virtually all ambassadors are selected. Others, who join the
E-stream, can aspire only to top administrative posts.
But
while the old guard insists that the streaming has never been rigid
and defends the principle of elitism, younger members see the
present system as leading to frustration.
Because
the FO is oversubscribed, many with first rate qualifications
find themselves in the E-stream: "At every level people are
overqualified for the grades in which they join", said an
insider.
