>chief advisor to PM stating that UK civil service should be entirely abolished

Citation? The original article advocates reform, and possibly abolishing permanent secretaries, but nothing like entirely abolishing the civil service

https://dominiccummings.com/2014/10/30/the-hollow-men-ii-som...

More here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/14/boris-johnso...

http://theconversation.com/dominic-cummings-wants-to-add-mor...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/01/boris-...

The institution will obviously continue to exist under its current name.

None of those things are anything like "entirely abolish".

I’m also very confused about what exactly is supposed to be independent about it. The job of the civil service is to execute government policy.

When people say that they mean that it is independent from party politics, and distinct from the government, i.e. yes it executes government policy but it is separate from the government and the personnel don't change after elections.

Independent civil service exists to provide:

1) continuity of government function in presence of political instability, elections etc.

2) higher level of comptency across government employees ( career bureaucrats)

Essentially you don't want the government to be staffed with incompetent friends and affiliates who either leave or get kicked out after lost election leading to the vacancies, interrupted projects etc.

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service#Civil_service_in...

I think more specifically civil service is there to act on the laws passed and do so with regards to the law or policy....not necessarily the whims of a given politician...or say only service his supporters.

Policy and legislation are not the same thing. Policy is how cabinet decides to run its ministerial portfolios. If they want to implement a policy that requires large changes, this will often require new legislation, but the two things are quite seperate. The job of the civil service is to implement government policy, which may include the whims of a particular politician. Civil servants are supposed to be independent in the sense that they will faithfully implement the policy of any government, regardless of their own political opinions on said policy. They do not operate independent of government policy. That is how you ensure thousands of unelected government officials uphold the values of a democratic society.