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Is devolved government in Scotland working properly? Not according to the civil servants who actually have to make it function, says a new report by Gordon Brown’s Our Scottish Future (OSF) thinktank.

In the 47-page study Fixing Broken Government, Professor Jim Gallagher — himself a former senior mandarin — warns that Scotland’s governing system is “in stasis”, struggling to deliver basic reforms and increasingly overwhelmed by political short-termism.

The report draws on a series of confidential interviews with civil servant.

Gallagher says every participant was “keen to talk” and painted a remarkably similar picture of a government focused on presentation over delivery.

If you’re thinking, well they would say that, wo

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