You say that. But in parallel to this Dixons/DSG have just won a court case over their failure to protect public financial and identity data, having paid a chicken feed ICO fine. And anyone who's actually had any dealings with a large company when things go worng knows full well how they avoid any kind of accountability (or even contact). So there is true impunity. Whereas, despite those assertions, most public employees are fully accountable, doing a professional job like anyone else under and accountable to management like anyone else. It's a job. Like anyone else's.
And the mandarins who make these kinds of decisions come out of the same public school+Oxbridge bunch as their politician masters and a good many CEOs. Which route they take seems to be pretty random, and frequently interchangeable. Today's mandarin or Politician is tomorrow's Company Director, or vice versa.
As to that bit about their pensions - an irrelevance that simply identifies a general attitude to public servants. This seems like it's envy. The public servants take a pay and conditions contract like anyone else on recruitment. We can all apply for such jobs, but chose not to ( or were rejected).. Theirs includes a nice pension and decent job security, too, but pretty crap pay. TBH most of us wouldn't want to take that job, even the higher level roles, because we can earn a damned sight more in private employment.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
