According to Whitehall's rumour mill, the streamlined, post-austerity era civil service may slim down to a workforce of 250,000, just more than half current levels. As many senior officials consider hailing a cab out of Whitehall, newspaper 'revelations' that the military top brass form a conga-line to trouser new salaries in the defence industry caused uproar. But the astonishing churn of the senior echelons is best seen in the Department for Transport (DfT), whose post-coalition tally of three permanent secretaries is matched by a trio of secretaries of state - Stephen Hammond, Justine Greening, and now former government chief whip and Tory tribune of the plebs, Philip McLoughlin - in two years.
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