You perfectly explain the utter madness of UK politics. In the words of Jim Hacker, the rules of the civil service: It take longer to do things quicker and it’s more expensive to do them quickly. If a business took 100 days to review a small part (20% ish?) of it’s business, it would sack the people responsible in a heartbeat and employ more competent staff. That’s the trouble with government, moves slower than an arthritic slug.
Here’s a manifesto commitment, we’ll cancel the annual break, the stupid conference season and crack straight on with the job of fixing the country. Nah, can’t have common sense now can we.
Any particularly leftwing voters likely to be out of the country early July due to cheap availability before the school holidays? Ah, only all the college students who’ve just finished their A Levels. Hadn’t thought of that, clever That could actually make a small difference.
I agree public sector is glacial but its often not the people, it’s the processes they need to adhere to and the hoops to jump through to progress anything. Protections are there to protect public money, rightly so, but it didnt stop the government circumventing them with PPE procurement for example so it can be argued they arent stiff enough. But im leaning your direction to be honest. Process needs to be more concise and to some degree flexible. How you marry the two is anyones guess.
And yes there are numpties out there on £50/hr that will argue for an hour to save £8 and no eye on the value behind that spending. They just need to be told.
Yeah, side point, Mrs holidays used to coincide with Scotish holidays back in the days when we did the 2 week last minute “somewhere in the Med” holidays. Always had a blast with our northern friends.
I know I keep banging on about Yes Minister but it’s frighteningly accurate. Minister wants to do things and the Civil Service want to obfuscate and frustrate.
The starting point for any fix, imo, would need to be a political class that acts in good faith with benevolent intentions.
Let’s hope the next lot possesses the above. The right-wing in this country has again and again proven beyond all reasonable doubt that they serve only themselves and the establishment that enables them.
Have you considered that it is the quality of the ministers that is at fault? If they understand that they are there to provide executive guidance that is clear, concise, legal and considered, then the civil service can operate very quickly.
It’s when they turn up and they are clueless, don’t listen, try to micro-manage and are quite clearly going to be out of the door at the next reshuffle that the problems start. That’s why I think having a senior civil servant working with the shadow parties executives is a really good idea.
Its both, the system is cumbersome and heavily bureaucratic, to boot, the candidates are woeful - its nothing surprising they have only known a postmodern valueless society. Interested only in ‘how much’. Failing to realise our foundational values were priceless.
Well I didnt use it in that sense. Inspirational does not necessarily imply bluster. You can be silently inspirational. Whereas charisma always implies a deployment of personality, speech, mesmerism, if you have it available. There is a whole course on leadership which you abstractly swept aside.
True but I’m talking more about procurement in the main. You cant just reach out to a local survey contractor for a simple building survey for example. 3 quotes, full tender package, tender appraisal, possibly interviews, bla bla bla. That tender process might cost more to administer than the value of the contract.
That could actually make a small difference.
