 without the firm's expensive services. All inevitably carry the unmistakeable McKinsey imprimatur of contestability, business units and stifling bureaucracy.
The can-do attitude of consultants appeals especially to a prime minister still scratching what he called the "scars on my back" from his early attempts at public sector reform. Where sceptical civil servants question, consultants deliver - with just two small snags: they deflect billions from the "front-line" of schools and hospitals, and all too often decimate the public services they seek to reform. But, because they look and sound like they can be handed the levers of power, ex-partners in leading firms were running both Blair's delivery and strategy unit by the end of 2005.
It's not all one-way traffic, either. Sir Michael Barber, the previous head of the Downing Street delivery unit, has slunk off to a job at McKinsey, while Lord Turnbull, the country's top civil servant - who was hugely instrumental in recent civil service reforms that are partly behind the consultancy boom -
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| Lord Turnbull’s civil service reforms are partly behind the consultancy boom. Now he is a consultant |
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found an equally cushy role for himself at another consultancy that earns tens of millions from Whitehall.
All told, at least 50 senior figures have stepped in one side of this revolving door and out the other under New Labour. Small wonder the work doesn't dry up for the employers they left (and will almost certainly rejoin with CVs and contact lists suitably enhanced). Mandarins can look forward to a handy sideline when they retire at 60 not yet ready for the pipe and slippers. Unsurprisingly, Whitehall's top brass rarely criticise the consultants they appoint.
Will the Government crack down? On the contrary. Last year Blair commissioned Sir Patrick Brown to review business appointments for public servants. He concluded the rules should be relaxed. What a surprise: the chairman of a private rail company, Brown had been the permanent secretary at the Department of Transport during rail privatisation before taking his own profitable spin in the revolving door. 
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