Not a lot of people may know this, but the shortlist for Whitehall's new director general (DG) of civil service reform is supposedly being drawn up this week. There has been some history to this position, which was last month advertised with a salary of £142,000 – around the average wage of a council chief executive.

It is not the first time the post has appeared. Last year, it was advertised internally within the civil service, but no appointment was made. Instead, arrangements were made for ‘an alternative team-based approach', with the post being split between two senior-level civil servants as executive directors. This sounded like a typical Whitehall fudge with the civil service, in the best traditions of Sir Humphrey, smothering the idea of a powerful director of reform at birth.