I had the incredible luck to meet on the day of his involuntary retirement from running the largest global financial aide fund until the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation exceeded the figures involved, forced into very early retirement because the New Labour government dictated by fiat the abrogation of every civil servant who was recruited internally and not from university. My advisor and great friend could manage with a team of a few percent in headcount of the present incumbent cohort, a multi billion pounds development organisation and had proven himself in the most fraught of contentions between government and industry (Mike was the hatchet man tasked with getting the dirt and lowdown on the infamous Westland affair that nearly toppled the Thatcher government, for only one example of his capabilities) and consequently I'm not persuaded of the whole prejudice against bureaucracy which I know personally in the UK has been a consequence of this most disastrous and indiscriminate violence against the national interest in all of my understanding of administrative modern history.