Monday, 28 March 2011
Why the European project is effectively a waste of time and money
Can anybody explain why the Opposition always backs the Government when it comes to military action?
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Egypt first hand
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
George Osborne asks the public which services should be cut: some answers
It general, I feel the Government must introduce some sort of litmus test which examines "does this initiative just look good on paper - or appeal to our idealogical leanings - or will it make a real difference?"
Localism, for example. Sounds great and, philosophically, I think it's wonderful. But how many of you think your local authority actually does a good job of organising public services in your area? I'm not saying all local government is weak at delivery but alot of it seems to be. And even if good work is done, is it really good value for money to have all those layers of bureaucracy between the Treasury and the "end user" (er - that's you and me)?
Council tax - what a phenomenal waste of time and money (the calculation and billing and collecting and allocation and redistribution). And it's hardly a "fair tax. Just bang it all in income tax and redistribute it from the centre, to areas where it's actually needed.
Policing - (in cities) sell half the cars and get em on bikes ; give them helmet cameras so they don't have to spend ages writing up (probably rather biased) notes. More time on the beat, less time filling out forms, less wasted overtime.
Prisons - close half of them. Revive that "short, sharp, shock" idea for prisons. Plough most of the savings into making the Probation Service more effective, rehabilitation, remedial eduction. Reduce reoffending and therefore reduce the long-term spend on Justice.
I fear the actual policy wont be as good as it sounds but I actually think streamlining and simplifying the benefits system is very sensible. And I think pensions should be brought into this analysis. I wonder - not having access to Treasury data - whether it would be possible to set a fair National Minimum Income that was aligned with the income tax threshold. In other words, we'd make sure everyone over the age of 18 had an income they could live off (and wouldn't be taxed on) but that that was means tested. So: no pension for people who have enough to live off anyway ; likewise child benefit ; like wise incapacity benefits. (rare) Targeted top up payments (for the disabled, for example) would help people whose unalterable circumstances mean their financial requirements exceed the norm.
Take almost all of central Government (Civil service) out of London. I used to be a Civil Servant. Most of the work done in London could be done elsewhere. This doesn't mean "localism" it just means distributing central government around the UK to support employment outside the overcrowded south east. To be fair, this has been tried but, frankly, minimal effort has been applied to overcome the intransigence of Civil Servants.
And as I understand it, there are nearly enough Lt Colonels working for the MOD for every fighting platoon in the Army to be led directly by a Lt Col. The madness of feather bedding in the armed services just has to stop. Scrap our pointless heavy armour brigades. Get rid of any notion of high altitude bombing (doesn't work, laser-guided or not). refocus the Navy on submarines and amphibious warfare and ditch most of the surface fleet. Dont buy eurofighter etc.
Don't build any more roads.
Invest in local renewable generation of electricity and bring the cost of energy (and, therefore, business) down. More profitable business = more tax +less unemployment.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Dudus, Escobar and the rest
Monday, 1 February 2010
The old quango chestnut
[With apologies to the blogosphere for my 6 week absence from here. I am sure the words "broadband problems" and "somewhat lazy" say it all]
So, I have been falling back on old, bad habits, and last week was tempted into joining back in with frustratati who pepper opinion pieces on mainstream news sites with their comments. I thought I'd reproduce (and expand a little) on that comment here...
Of course, Mr Randall's piece wasn't a serious analysis of the structure of public service management in the
So I went on to say...
"OK, this diversity job at the Film Council sounds like an expensive luxury but that's one job costing the taxpayer a little over £100k out of the billions spent on quangos: it's entertaining but essentially irrelevant to wider question."
This caused a bit of a stir with one fellow commentator who responded: "Well that makes it alright then. Tell you what, I will jack in my job and breeze along into some quango non-job paying £70k and sit it out until I retire. No-one will notice and I will be essentially irrelevant. You will not mind paying, will you? What sort of planet are you on? You obviously do not work in the productive economy.”
Which rather misses the point: that one pointless job – or even quite few of them – does not undermine the whole point of having quangos. And, really, has this person (presumably in the private sector) never worked somewhere where there are aimless passengers who contribute little or nothing to the company? – I certainly have! Of course, I was being provocative but anyway, here's the meat of my argument....
"So why do we have quangos?
- because (unlike in
- we can't afford to have all the people who "do the something" for the state on Civil Service t's&c's (although the pensions are now much reduced from what they once were). Quangos (for along time, and under Tory governments as much as Labour) are the third way solution - outsourcing to the private sector is not efficient as high proportion of state investment goes straight to shareholders' pockets
- so we have quangos!
[my comments ended there]
Now, all joking aside, this is really important. Since the Reagan-Thatcher axis (and perhaps long before) we have been sold this axiom: that the private sector is, by nature and design, more cost effective than the State/public sector. Time and again, this has proven not to be the case. There have been successful privatizations in the
It’s so nice to have one’s opinions confirmed by an apposing argument so I was particularly pleased that another commentator responded to my post saying:
“What is the point in the private sector giving the State funds through taxation only to be given it back through outsourcing? A gives to B and B gives it back to A. How efficient is that? [the radar sweep agrees – we could equally well leave these activities to the State. Or not do them at all. Putting these responsibilities in the hand of the private secotr is not a solution]
And why is the State deciding what needs to be done? Why not leave it to private individuals to decide? [the radar sweep agrees – why do we leave these things up other people?]
The State has got its fingers into so much of the economy that it is extremely difficult, in a practical sense, to separate out those parts that add or create value, in the true sense, from those which are a drain. [the radar sweep agrees – again, they behave just like quangos. Indeed, it would be equally true to say “The Private Sector has got its fingers into so much of Government that it is extremely difficult, in a practical sense, to separate out those parts [of either] that add or create value, in the true sense, from those which are a drain.”]
That's why the
Which [leaving aside their final sentence] takes me back to my point. The problem is not whether it is the public or the private sector that does the work of the quangos – the problem is that we in the