In the private sector attention is centred on what service or good the company provides. If I go to shop I do not want to be told how much the shop spends on buying and selling things and managing itself. I would not regard a shop that cost £1m to run each year as intrinsically better than one which cost £900,000. I go to the shops that offer the best prices and service quality, concentrating on what I as a customer receive and the value it represents. Shops can win more custom by cutting their costs of managing themselves to lower their prices. Discount food retailers have done well out of stripping down costs of display, property and support staff, When the private sector delivers poor service or bad goods it usually apologises, takes the blame and where necessary offers compensation.
Many people in the public services concentrate on the inputs rather than the outputs. Much of the debate is about how much extra money is put in, about many extra people are appointed to provide the service. To some political parties extra or additional or “new” money is all important and to them has magical powers which the base budget or the “old” money does not possess. This is strange misconception. The base budget is always the dominant part of the money, and more attention needs to be given to how that is spent each year with a constant thirst for improvement. When the public services deliver poor service they normally say they were “underfunded”. They say remedy for poor service is more cash and people. Rarely do they say they got it wrong, will do better and misspent or failed to direct the resources they had available.
Of course there are times when we do need more doctors and nurses or more teachers. If we keep expanding the population we need to recruit and retain more qualified people to provide extra service. You can also have too many managers or administrators. You can fail to harness new technology to cut costs. Managers in some public services multiply and impose an increasing burden on the front line workers who get diverted by management from their main task of teaching or nursing.
Good management is about supporting the front line staff. It is about keeping the costs and intrusion of management down. It is best with few layers and clear responsibility for specified and measurable tasks. A well managed organisation has low rates of staff turnover, low rates of absence , high staff morale and unity of purpose in serving the public to a high standard. Some parts of the public esrvices fall down on these criteria. Their senior managers need to be challenged as to why, and asked to improve the way they treat the staff, spend the money and achieve results.
July 24, 2023
It seems Sir John hasn’t adapted to the modern world of ‘snowflake’ public sector managers. If they are ‘challenged’ they will soon say their ‘mental health’ has been ‘damaged’ and they will go off ‘sick’ for ages so that instead of being paid fortunes for doing very little, they will be paid fortunes for doing absolutely nothing!
July 24, 2023
On the plus side, whilst off sick they can’t do any more damage…
… that’s left for the deputies to take on!
July 24, 2023
The other favourite complaint is “they’re being bullied.” Requiring someone to do their job; accept criticism when it’s appropriate and demonstrate improve their performance is now classed as bullying.
July 24, 2023
Of course reducing the public sector head count by 91,000 under Jacob Rees-Mogg was stopped by Hunt and Sunak. Reducing the state would allow these people to get jobs in the private sector and thereby no need for mass immigration.
Alas big authoritarian state, record high taxes, lack of productivity is the socialist uni party way. Sunak and Hunt completed wedded to WEF, UN and globalist Glenda. Even happy to betray the nation by getting rid of N.Ireland to EU while at the same time tying GB tightly to EU! All against the reasons what they were elected for. Patel, Johnson, Raab, Truss and the 5 Brexiteers cleansed from legislative committee to hive off N.Ireland without any obstacles- not a coincidence but a cleansing of leading Brexiteers from govt and all important committees. Braverman survived two coups so far.
UK helped bring down Berlin Wall, helped democracy across Europe in 1939, yet the traitors in Tory party content to act against our national interests, home nations and people across the country.
Interesting how Sunak and Hunt can build a wall down the Irish Sea to separate GB from N.Ireland, but not put a barrier across the English Channel to stop mass immigration from a completely safe country? Sunak paying France for mass immigration, how is he different from people smugglers? How many hundreds of millions paid to France for an increase in boat people- ÂŁ200-300 million?
July 24, 2023
Great comment Hope. You see it very clearly.
July 24, 2023
+ many
July 25, 2023
+1
July 24, 2023
Always it seems with a Union Rep only too willing to cease the political angle with a mainstream media of the same political persuasion to run with the story, endlessly.
Sadly with a general public so keen to virtue signal and unable to think anything through, the emotional politics played on them will always win the day.
July 24, 2023
Sorry ‘seize’ the political angle.
July 24, 2023
A large proportion of jobs in the public sector are counter productive or down right harmful. This wouldn’t be tolerated in a private company as it would soon go bust.
The NHS diversity, inclusion and many other non jobs are a prime example.
Go woke go broke in the private sector, not so in government funded sinecures.
July 24, 2023
Invariably a better deal!
July 24, 2023
Cameron called Miliband Red Ed and his energy policy Marxist. He implemented it and May told parliament she would build on it! Uni party same policies with different campaigns.
July 24, 2023
Thats not always so. My Son is a Manager in DWP, in London .He works long hours, way beyond his designated hours, including several days a week at the office. no overtime is ever paid. He knows other managers in the same position.
Some people on his Team, do not pull their weight, despite his efforts, and because of this, the job is incredibly stressful.
Im just trying to put the other side, when people say, that the Public Sector is useless , and that they ALL, sit on on their behinds all day, doing nothing.
July 24, 2023
If some of his people aren’t pulling their weight, deal with them. The toolbox (policy/contract/discipline) is usually their, it just takes courage to open it, select the correct tool and use it! Inaction is often more stressful than action. It also raises moral of the team when poor performers (lazy/idle) are dealt with.
July 24, 2023
Perhaps his non-performing staff are PCS members Tim?
July 24, 2023
Tim: I agree, but the moment you say something, the person involved accuses you of âbullyingâ and raises a âgrievanceâ against you, and this has to be investigated, which takes ages, the beaurocracy is dreadful.
Its soul destroying to get anything done. The whole system needs a shake up.
July 24, 2023
CS, I sympathise and have worked through these issues. Persevere as his reputation will then become a self fulfilling prophecy. They will perform, ship up or shape off. His other team members will recognise his endeavours. His own managers need to show support and say so publicly. Cultures can be changed.
July 24, 2023
Yes I was pondering why he accepted their behaviour , I never carried people like that.
Warnings then sack!
July 24, 2023
Of course the govt could change Labour and EUâs employment legislation back to what it used to be. Change civil service back to crown servants, police and military exempt from Equality legislation to bring Marxism into the work place. Cameron, May and Johnson CHOSE to implement Blaireâs employment legislation, Equality Act, ECHR- anything but equality, designed to shut down free speech.
With an 85 seat majority and people champing at the bit for change were let down badly. Cameron deliberately shifted his party to left of centre.
I had lots of London Lib Dem campaigners canvassing last week for my vote, not one conservative. The canvassers could answer one question about local issues nor why they betrayed the nationwide vote on Brexit. Now there is a Lib Dem MP, can we have a second vote I did not like the result? Is it not the uni party way? Look at all the remainer Tory ministers in post, accident? Of course not. Total betrayal. All in accord with back stabbing Sunak values.
July 24, 2023
May be you could ask him what the PAYE Employer reference is for the state pension as it doesn’t seem to be possible to get it from them or a P60…
July 24, 2023
Who can challenge the âsenior managersâ when the most senior manager of all is the PM? He takes all authority, he must accept all responsibility.
The NHS has been a worldwide laughing stock for decades. But we banged pots and pans to drown out that message.
You donât mention the annual insurance payout from botched treatments – these are also a measure of NHS failure.
The monstrous NHS must be dismembered. It is a terrifying service. I am thinking of getting my first tattoo âin no circumstances take this woman to any NHS facilityâ.
July 24, 2023
Except the NHS have a complete monopoly on emergency care so where else would you go in a real emergency?
Also you might react to dirty tattoo needles!
The NHS certainly seems to have done huge net harm with the Covid Vaccines the statistics are dire. Heart conditions up 27% on pre covid rates and many are young people who most certainly had no need of the âvaccinesâ.
One surgeon I know converted to law and now does medical litigation against the NHS. Twice the pay half the hassle he says.
July 24, 2023
How do you make money out of emergency care when you never know what is coming in? If a profit could be made, private hospitals would do it, but instead they cherry pick what they want to do based on known costs and pass onto the NHS things they are incapable of, such as intensive care when things go wrong. Regarding the harm of Covid vaccines, I don’t think the blame lies with the NHS but the government who mostly went round like headless chickens not knowing what to do and passing draconian laws to make it all happen. I think you criticism in both areas is misplaced.
July 24, 2023
Don’t forget, Graham, that the NHS tried to impose a vaccine mandate on its staff, e.g.: ‘NHS England and NHS Improvement are clear that colleagues have a professional duty to get vaccinated’. ‘https://www.ouh.nhs.uk/working-for-us/staff/covid-staff-faqs-vaccine.aspx
When a few brave doctors stood up to it, it was the government, not the NHS, that listened and relented on imposing a vaccine mandate nationally. Thank goodness it did.
July 25, 2023
Except of course it was compulsory for care home staff and we lost 40,000, still suffering from that crass decision – nothing to do with NHS. Do you think the NHS acted against government instructions?
July 24, 2023
Well clearly a profit could be made with a suitable charging or insurance system, but hard if competing with a âfreeâ NHS service that people are forced to pay for even if they do not use it. The NHS free at the point of (use delay and rationing) kills most competition and sensible innovation in healthcare. Kills loads of people too.
July 25, 2023
Some people have health insurance, but the insurers don’t cover it and would never wear it if they could not forecast what it would cost. Why? They compete against the ‘free’ NHS on electives, and many are prepared to fund themselves now because of the awful delays, so why not emergency medicine? I think you are dreaming. Private is not the answer to everything. Some things are just too big. By the way, do you think people who have no children should not be forced to pay for education? I pay taxes on my meagre income for the good of society so people can have things they could not otherwise afford. Seems the richer you are, the meaner you get.
July 25, 2023
LL – I would prefer to âdie in a ditchâ than go to the NHS. Indeed I insist.
July 24, 2023
I think you identify the main problem with all public services, the lack of accountability the senior managers have for the services they provide, as they just hide behind the politicians who take the flack for the day-to-day running of organisation they have no real ability to control given all their other responsibilities. What should be taking place is all senior managers should be highly visible and should present monthly reports, like a board director does in the private sector, so the public know clearly who they are and what is going on. The fact we rarely see the head of the NHS on TV being held to account despite the dramatic demise of its service quality is a disgrace and she should be held accountable and sacked and someone more competent employed who is held accountable for turning the service around.
July 24, 2023
Also missing in the public sector is any penalty for failure – how many times have we seen massive failure, the inevitable claim of lessons learned, only for the responsible individuals to be moved sideways or more usually upwards to perpetuate the problems. There needs to be real accountability and real penalties for failure.
July 24, 2023
Spot on Will, many a senior but useless public sector individual finishes up with a lordship and of course their juicy final salary pension.
July 24, 2023
PeteB, Do you realise how ridiculous you are? There are some 800 Lords and Ladies. Only looking at NHS there are 1.5 million public sector individuals working in it. In total 5.83 million public sector employees in the UK. Out of which, 3.64 m in central government, of which 521k in the Civil Service (ons.gov.uk, âPublic sector employment, March 2023â)
Do you really think your sentence âmany a senior but useless public sector individuals finishes up with a lordshipâ makes much sense?
Oh Bonne MĂšre, how crass can one be?
July 24, 2023
Touched a nerve? Plenty of Sirs and Dames that don’t have a seat in the House of Lords.
July 25, 2023
More passive aggressive posts from you hefner.
Do really need to be so rude?
July 24, 2023
Well, yes, and in imposing penalties let us begin with the Conservative Party which has been in power for THIRTEEN years (a point Mr Redwood strangely avoids mentioning when he daily laments the poor state of our country)
July 24, 2023
Massive failures indeed – the BoE, FCA, the NHS (the current and last CEOs are/were dreadful), the climate change committee, current energy policy, border force, transport policy, housing policy, the duff worthless university degrees & wasted student debt for them, Blair’s evil wars, the office of tax simplification (tax complexity doubled)… just a few of the of so many failures in recent years.
July 24, 2023
@Lifelogic would we miss any of them, would their loss cause any failures?
July 24, 2023
Good morning.
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union the most stark contrast between the two systems of government were the shops. In the West there was choice with full shelves of all things at competitive prices. In the Soviet bloc there was the opposite.
Today even Communist China has abandoned Socialism realising that to achieve prosperity on which so much depends upon it must create that wealth.
And whilst China is going one way, we in the West are going in the opposite direction. Rather run sensible budgets, control spending and ensure decent public services the politics, and especially identity politics, have been allowed to run rife to the extent that it now permeates even our banking system.
The Tories had 13 years to roll this back. Instead, like the hopeless Theresa May MP once said concerning RedEd’s climate change policies; “We will build on them.”
2030 is the new 1984 !
July 24, 2023
For thirteen years the Conservatives have concentrated on:
Gay marriage, taking child benefit away from reasonable earner, hiking taxes, net zero measures, sending too many kids to university for no benefit and huge debt, facilitating huge immigration, gender studies, HS2, locking us up and paying people to stay home, printing money and facilitating unsustainable property prices.
They have been too busy to address the public sector.
July 24, 2023
Indeed. The standards in politics have never been lower. The best people are left on the shelf or not selected under the FPTP system.(Sir John, Sir Nigel etc) as they don’t want the “steady as she goes” leftist/woke/direction of the Uni Party rocked. We need change of the voting system and a new Party to take over, in brief we need REFORM.
July 24, 2023
Whoâs Sir Nigel?
July 24, 2023
Tongue in cheek for Mr Farsge who stands head and shoulders above the below average politicos who have received knighthoods.
July 25, 2023
Wow, that really puts them in their place, below sewer level in my calculation!
July 24, 2023
If public service quality reached the standard it should the nation would be a happier place. Occasional bungling and waste would lower and fewer would be concerned about the cost. Unfortunately it is massive. The current bungling and dire outcomes are too.
July 24, 2023
Leave the money with the people who earned it and let them have real âfreedom and choiceâ as to how they spend it. Not governments taxing to death and delivering usually second rate âservicesâ you usually did not even want. Things like net zero, useless degrees, HS2 and road blocking for some good examples. Government almost never know best as we saw with Covid lockdowns, the net harm vaccines and the dire NHS âserviceâ. Indeed it seems governments actually created and leaked Covid 19.
The Governmentâs âsilenceâ on climate policy has left a âvacuumâ that could be filled by opponents of net zero, Chris Skidmore MP (modern history) has warned. The Prime Minister needs to set out a vision to ensure the UK remains a leader on tackling climate change, but at the moment is not doing so. This following the resignation of Lord Zac Goldsmith (no degree) who accused Rishi Sunak of being âuninterestedâ in action on climate change and said the UK had âvisibly stepped off the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate. Where are some sensible scientist like the 2022 Nobel Prize Winner for Physics: âClimate Science has Metastasised into ⊠Pseudoscienceâ it sure has – Dr John Clauser.
This lack of interest in net zero is about the only positive I have heard about Sunak. No one properly informed & sensible wants net zero, it costs a fortune (that we do not have) and delivers only expensive & intermittent energy, economic damage, exports industries and jobs (and the related CO2) and delivers nothing of real value. There is no climate emergency that will be solved by Mayâs moronic net zero lunacy.
July 24, 2023
Skidmore seem to think the public want net zero. They rarely do in reality when they see and understand the costs and zero net benefits delivered by it. Those that do want net zero usually have almost zero understanding of science and have just been brainwashed by weather porn on the BBC and by government propaganda organisations and in our propaganda schools.
Try asking people what percentage of air is C02, how much of that is manmade, and what is the main atmospheric greenhouse gas, how much is from the UK. Most believers in this new religion would get all the answers wrong.
July 24, 2023
A large proportion of the increase in “management” in both the public and private sector has been a direct consequence of EU Regulations, as the mega-bureaucracy sought to micro-manage the economies and societies of 28 disparate nations.
The pro-EU Westminster Uni-Party and even more pro-EU Mandarins enthusiastically grasped the opportunities to gold-plate everything and load ever more restrictions and control mechanisms on employers in both the public and private sector.
We had an opportunity to remove or reduce many of these Regulations under Brexit, but the Westminster Uni-Party refused to do it and the Not-a-Conservative-Government ensured that we remain largely under the EU’s control.
Attitudes in the Public Sector won’t change until attitudes in the Not-a-Conservative-Party change …. and there’s no sign of that happening any time soon.
July 24, 2023
@Donna
It stems from as Sir John previously reminded everyone, the European mindset where everything is illegal first, unless they have given permission for it. Where as those that evolved from what is termed English Law, nothing is illegal unless the elected representatives deemed it to be.
The difference is subtle. It is either the people through Democratically elected representatives, that create, amend or repeal the laws, rules and regulations, or it is the Bureaucrats that are in reality building self-satisfying costly Empires. The UK is stuck in no man’s land, as the Political Class are frightened of the Bureaucrats so refuse to âmanageâ â meaning they have forgotten their purpose, what they are paid for and who empowered them.
July 24, 2023
If âa large proportion of the increase in âmanagementâ in both the public and the private sectors has been a direct consequence of EU regulationsâ, how comes this âmega-bureaucracyâ does not appear to have affected other countries on the continent, say in Italy, Spain, Netherlands, France, Germany, Scandinavian countries, âŠ, to the same extent as in the UK?
Is it because:
1/ the management in these other countries is of a better quality than the one in the UK?
2/ there was already, before any potential effect of EU regulations, possibly less (or possibly more?) bureaucracy in these countries, and that the additional impact of EU regulations was smaller than in the UK?
3/ your diagnostic is simply wrong, and that your generalisations (the Uni-party, the Non-Conservative-Government) while convenient for addressing the readership on this blog is irrelevant to the problem at hand?
4/ of an all-together completely different reason from what you are trying to say? (say, some âstickinessâ in the overall UK way of handling changes, and/or some inadequacy of the HoC/HoL way in addressing problems?)
What would you really think if you were not parroting some of (y)our âbrilliantâ columnists or âexceptionalâ bloggers?
July 25, 2023
Hefner, are you claiming only a few complaints from other countries on the continent?
The Danish Business Forum, Italy and Spain lodging complaints with the EU court, EU business red tape costs increased by 750m euros pa (EUobserver). Hence the Dutch drive to slash EU red tape (politico eu). Italian banks complaining of the Italian interpretation of EU financial regulations (state.gov.) There are research papers on business dynamics and red tape barriers in 17 EU member states (source ideas.repec.org)
July 30, 2023
Thanks for that, a-tracy.
July 24, 2023
I see Sunak is claiming he won’t concrete over the countryside to provide housing (to accommodate the mass immigration the Not-a-Conservative-Government has been presiding over for the past 13 years).
Has he been to Sussex recently? Does he even know where it is?
For his information just in case a minion is reading Sir John’s blog, Sussex is turning into one big building site with concrete going down all around Horsham, Billingshurst and in the Bognor-Chichester area along the A27 …. with little boxes spreading like a measles rash.
Concreting over southern England is precisely what IS happening.
July 24, 2023
I will confirm that to be true! We’ve visited there a couple of times in the last few years… there’s new stuff going up where you wouldn’t expect it!
Tangmere Aviation Museum have some land they’re been trying to acquire to expand the museum, but a member of staff fears it’s going to be used for housing!
July 24, 2023
Indeed…………………….If we keep expanding the population we need to recruit and retain more qualified people to provide extra service……………………….. NO NO NO. You need to stop immigration in all its forms except for exceptional people who are needed. Not every minimum wage man and his dog, his wife and cousin. Get the welfare people back to work and the generations who have never worked on time limited welfare, not a permanent feature. Start representing the tax payer not the shirkers and every chancer who chips up here. Stop providing accommodation for them unless you are prepared to offer the same to everyone, including our own homeless. Disgusting. Start representing the hard pressed 46% taxpayers, you’ve had 13 years!!
July 24, 2023
Only 46% may be paying income tax and NIC, most of us are paying VAT, excise duties, stamp duty, council tax, fuel/car duties, âŠ
July 24, 2023
Yes Hefner. The 54% pay those taxes from their welfare or pensions. So do the 46% as well. I don’t object to pensioners. I do object to the individuals who sit on their asses for years and make no attempt to find a job so we, the 46% don’t have to sub them permanently. The Government needs to look after tax payers first or there is no welfare for the rest as we’re sick of it.
July 24, 2023
The IFS says; today 60% of adults pay income tax. It rose steadily through the 1990s and 2000s but fell from the late 2000s onwards as a result of the big increases in personal allowances.
Who pays the majority of tax in the UK?
Income tax payments are concentrated amongst those with the largest incomes. The 10% of income taxpayers with the largest incomes contribute over 60% of income tax receipts.5 Jun 2023. Source Parliament UK
July 24, 2023
So that’s a hosepipe ban sooner rather than later, and more untreated sewage dumped into the English Channel.
July 24, 2023
The Wokingham area is going the same way, Donna. In-migration here has been twice the national average since 2011. The council plans to concrete over yet more countryside to accommodate many thousands more. One of our local MPs was all in favour, not sure what the other one thinks
July 24, 2023
@R.Grange +1
And your Liberal Democrat Council got elected on the promise(but that is just a Liberal Democrat promise) of curtailing the madness, but has instead pushed further
July 24, 2023
Ah, but they are doing what they can to thwart the driving of cars through the Borough. Anyone in the business of installing “traffic calming” stands to benefit handsomely from our Council Tax payments. I’m sure the emergency services staff are relieved that high speed driving will become a thing of the past! My neighbour had a fall and was in great pain and had to wait a mere twelve and a half hours (!!!) for the “emergency” ambulance.
July 24, 2023
I guess it should be written ânot sure what the other was thinking and why they have changed their mindâ. A coming GE, maybe?
July 24, 2023
Agree and whilst all that is going on we have a Sussex village GP working from Falmouth.
July 24, 2023
As an aside to that, we have the same problem. Just a couple of miles from us an estate of 1200 houses is going up on prime farming land which has produced food for centuries and as far as I can see not one has a solar panel. Presumably the government won’t make them a requirement because their friends in the supply industries might lose a bit of profit. If they were serious about climate change and providing more power would they not include it in the building regs. for new builds?
July 24, 2023
It seems that Gove plans to make it easier to convert retail property into houses and increase occupancy of existing houses with extensions and loft conversions. Going back to yesterday’s topic there is no consideration of where the cars owned by the extra residents will go.
July 25, 2023
Gove says we have the lowest density housing in Europe. I doubt that and judging by the newbuilds rabbit hutches and tiny gardens it won’t last. Going back to the past with back to back housing for the plebs? I guess they would love that. As for cars, it seems they will become a thing of the past as well, as they are advocating cycling and high motoring costs.
July 24, 2023
Itâs got nothing to do with outputs. Neither the ministers or civil servants have the in depth knowledge to ensure efficiency. It is a control issue. Protecting the reputation of Whitehall by being seen to be doing something so as with potholes/bank accounts/prices etc ministers rush to interfere.
No one monitors the efficiency of a scheme, itâs all about spending and they move on incessantly to the next one and as far as people are concerned next job with as wee see, limited ability.
It is your political merry go round that is a major cause of the problem plus an inherent distrust of anything ânon Whitehallâ
The machinery of government is bust. As you are all part of it. It is in your interests, with a few exceptions to keep quiet.
Hence the continued rubbish about world class civil servants.
July 24, 2023
Anyone who has worked in both the public and private sector will confirm the huge difference in, staff attitude, management, work ethic, cost control, and customer service.
July 24, 2023
When the private sector delivers poor service, you say Sir John, it ‘usually apologises, takes the blame and where necessary offers compensation’. Right. And then what does it do? It goes on offering poor service just the same, like a certain water company I’m forced to use. And then when paying compensation, not to mention dividends to shareholders, becomes too much of a financial burden, it comes crying to the state for a bail out.
As for the banks, they’ve got so good at ‘stripping down costs’ by closing down branches on the high street that they offer no service at all, except online. You say good management is about supporting front line staff, but that support seems to consist of cutting many thousands of retail bank jobs in this country.
July 24, 2023
@Hat man Slightly wrong ‘private sector delivers poor service’ true privat companies go out of business.
The ‘water companies’ lack true privatisation as competition cant exists, so through OfWat the Government controls them – its a farce and a fudge. The Banks, at least the Banks that have the troubles are essentially still majority Government owned after going bust, so donât have to compete(the taxpayer supported them) â their management is the Government.
July 24, 2023
I take your point, Ian. The privatised water companies and the banks are kept by the state. Like the arms industry. Like the ‘green’ business sector.
July 24, 2023
I do not see how a country that has been eviscerated can provide a good, efficient, polite public service.
The powerful few have been allowed to..
Destroy religion
Mock integrity
Wreck our education system
Put an end to our homogeneity
Do away with our identity
Throw rules, manners and dedication out of the window
The people needed just arenât out there!
July 24, 2023
Too many pubic services are paid for being rather than doing.
If public services were paid per procedure or by output we might get better value.
Unfortunately we can not apply the great leveller – competition – as that would lead to duplicated efforts and payments at additional costs. We could apply competition to the NHS and stop taxing employees who are provided private medical insurance so long as it is offered to all employees within the company.
July 24, 2023
Many public services pay too much attention to the needs of those who have turned up on our shores rather than serving those who pay for them.
The immediate need of incomers means that legitimate needs of those who pay for the services get pushed to the side. Another reason to stem the tide.
July 24, 2023
It is ALL PLANNED. You are irrelevant
July 24, 2023
I often see in local online social media the timelines of small businesses going bust after the govt. forcibly shut them down.
The gradual realisation back c. 2021 that all was lost.
The grand final reduction sale and a lot of â lovely customersâ and â love yersâ.
Rarely, if ever have I seen justified anger or blame when they realise itâs overâŠ
Just a supine acceptance. Unthinking subjugation.Unquestioning belief in the narrative.
All allowed to happen, often by tories.
The dumbing down of education.
Good little Marxists waiting to be swallowed up by Labour.
July 24, 2023
Housing Secretary Michael Gove has this morning said his government should ârelax the paceâ of (his idiotic) EPC reforms that expected to much from private landlords. Mr Gove admitted that in his own department the government was âasking too much too quicklyâ of landlords, who will be banned from renting out their homes unless they pay for green measures such as insulation and heat pumps to meet a new minimum energy efficiency threshold by 2028.â
Not just relax Gove just abandon this lunacy and your other moronic anti-landlord, anti-tenant housing bill proposals. Also stop taxing landlords on gains and income that is not real income. Interest needs to be an allowable tax and gains need to be indexed for inflation. Otherwise investment is rarely worth doing so they will not invest and will quit.
Gove is most certainly a dangerous socialist fool, he even wanted 20% vat on private school fees like Starmer. At least he is rowing back a little having finally realised what a disaster his agenda has been!
July 24, 2023
Hear hear!
Nightclubs, crazy dancing.
Mad (remunerative) policies.
Riddle me, riddle me, riddle me ree!
And Iâll tell whatâs caused harm in our country.
July 24, 2023
LL – Gove is only one of the too many DANGEROUS socialist fools. It starts and stems from the very “top”.
July 24, 2023
And who is going to do that? MPs? With their cushy jobs and massive pensions? What happened to cutting the number of MPs? NOTHING, of course!
And what about he House of LORDS! Constantly enlarged.
Start with yourselves- and we might think you are slightly serious.
July 24, 2023
@Mike Wilson sort of +1
The House of Lords needs replacing urgently, with a legitimate revising chamber. We cant keep calling ourselves a democracy and then have this house of charlatans
You are right there is a great chunk of individuals in the House of Commons and in particularly this Conservative Government that are just âfree loadingâ Just as with Sir Johns thoughts on inputs and out puts, they are their for themselves and not to serve as such refuse to manage.
July 24, 2023
MW – Most of the so called managers should not be in their positions.
July 24, 2023
SNP plan to ban the sale of homes with gas boilers. This is an attack on our most divine values, private property rights. Now we are seeing the true colours of these eco-fascists intent of total destruction of our way of life. Labour will follow this if they get into power
July 24, 2023
@DOM
A real election winner. They are also lying about the cost other than a brand new house the cost is north of ÂŁ30,000 to make it work. So your ÂŁ200K home has to have ÂŁ30+ spent on it before you are permitted to sell it!
Mind you this Conservative Government is basically advocating the same â not thinking it through. All ban and cancell
July 24, 2023
I wonder what that will do to house prices up there?
July 24, 2023
Communism in our time
July 24, 2023
I do business with commercial entities because I choose to from the alternatives available. If any of those entities fail badly in their purpose they go out of business. Having done business with some of them I get asked what I thought of the experience, indicating that they consider it important. In some cases there are internet sites reporting on customer experiences.
With public services there is generally no competition so there is little incentive to find out what their customers think of the service they provide. There is next to no acknowledgement that their customers have already pre-paid in taxes and rates. Customers are not seen as such. Where the opposite is true it is down to good management. Since returning to the UK I have seen the effect of bad management all around me, but in my experience of my local GP NHS I have nothing but praise and conclude that it must be well managed. Additionally it is friendly and compassionate.
July 24, 2023
GPs are all in the private sector and are run as such and only subcontract to the NHS. So you confirm John’s point.
July 24, 2023
+1
July 24, 2023
Well said Sir John
As we say in the Private Sector, you know the one, where it is delivery that âcausesâ survival – what is offered is seen by the consumer in terms of âwhat it will do for themâ. No one gives a monkeys about all the peripheral nonsense, that’s just background noise.
The Politicos, those on the taxpayer payroll come over as loving the background noise. They somehow get to justify their existence on noise not delivery. The rest of us donât give a monkeys, you could probably get rid of 50% of the noise and it would make no difference. Although that said the taxpayer might.
It is what is meant by âhouse keepingâ, having a âbalanced budgetâ, âcutting ones clothâ and all those other sayings that relate to living within ones means.
July 24, 2023
“In the private sector attention is centred on what service or good the company provides.”
Used to be, not any more, here’s what NatWest think:
“Creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture is integral to fulfilling our purpose.” That “Purpose” resulted in them debanking Farage for non-commercial reasons.
There are many private companies now who regard their Purpose as being something other than providing a good or service. For example several fund managers are now using their fund shareholdings to pursue grandstanding ESG/Net Zero political objectives via AGM votes and direct pressure on company management to the detriment of investment returns with no consultation at all with the investors who provide the money for those shareholdings in the first place. This happens even with funds which do not have an explicit ESG mandate.
July 24, 2023
Well said – a good deal of wisdom in that piece.
Do ministers have enough authority to implement such actions – I fear they will be stumped at every opportunity by a civil service that now wags the dog.
A revolution is required in this country otherwise we really are going to the dogs.
July 24, 2023
Government in the UK is equally inept at saying take it or accept immobility in their solutions to Nett Zero, a concept created on Boris’s pillow.
If government had a financially viable alternative to petrol and diesel vehicles available now and an infrastructure to support it at acceptable cost, the majority would probably go along with it. However they are a million miles away, have no roadmap, and are heading for an electoral wipe out as a result. Labour are even worse with their support of ULEZ. The same can be said for government’s sales pitch on heat pumps, a crazilly expensive and less efficient device than the current gass boiler. Can I suggest that engaging brain before opening mouth is a sensible policy to adopt.
The ultimate goal , on health grounds alone, is worthwhile, but adopt an engineering and science approach that is market acceptable or the consumer will rig the market to suit themselves and everyone ends up a loser.
July 24, 2023
In the geology of most of the UK to turn towards heat exchangers as a heating solution for individual homes is a none starter, too expensive.
If you drill down virtically in the UK, give or take the temperature difference is 15°F per 1000 feet or in new money 25/30°C per 1000 metres.
Given this, why not create heat generation for a complete block of flats or a whole estate of houses. This is the basic material from which a geothermal engineer could come up with a viable scheme. Give it some thought and talk to people better qualified than me.
July 24, 2023
As part of our annual medication review, my wife and myself just been asked (by Text) by our GP to send in our Blood pressure readings, which we have willingly completed (on Line) as we have our own simple kit at home to be able to do so.
Yes you can of course visit the Practice if you cannot do it yourself.
It is however being suggested that the Practice gets a ÂŁ50.00 per patient payment from the NHS for completing such work, this seems rather excessive if true for a couple in minutes work, for simply looking at self taken readings.
Anyone got any facts/knowledge about possible payments, and if they are made for such work ?
July 24, 2023
BA – In the USA, hospitals and doctors were rewarded handsomely during the covid PLAN- demic, paying hospitals $13,000 for patients admitted with COVID-19 diagnoses and $39,000 if those patients are placed on ventilators. All based on a rigged PCR test which the inventor stated should not be used for covid. Do you trust the system??????? I do not.
July 24, 2023
The biggest problem is that nobody working in, or responsible for, public services really appreciates that they are spending OUR money and nor do they have any concept that there is no bottomless pot of the stuff.
I include the entire civil service and almost all politicians in this. (Present company excepted, of course ). Why, for example, is the current government and every opposition party determined to spend literally billions of pounds we don’t have on Net Zero, against the wishes of a majority of voters ?
July 24, 2023
A very rough guide to public productivity is walking pace. I’m not kidding.
I recently found myself in a hospital and noticed the staff were taking it very easy.
If they are walking at less than 2 and-a-half mph you are in a public sector (or publicly subsidied) workplace!
July 24, 2023
Iâve observed that most of the corridors in an NHS hospital are full of staff walking back and forth (very slow) âŠ.shouldnât the staff be on the wards and the porters on the corridors
July 24, 2023
What happens underneath is always dependent on the quality and direction at the top . Weak management without a clear view of the future and effective communication lines will always fail . In public companies if there is sufficient complaint shareholders have the means to inflict change , unfortunately this does not true in the direction and management of the country . The state of play today demonstrates the frustration that exists ; if I had my way I would change the top and the advice community around it .
July 24, 2023
@johnredwood
Government can get UK CO 2 output down faster if it reduces legal migration numbers. More people living here means more gas boilers and petrol cars, as well as all the CO 2 from building more homes.
@johnredwood
Lift the proposed bans on new gas boilers and new petrol cars. They will damage UK industry. Angry consumers will not buy heat pumps and electric cars they cannot afford. World CO 2 output will not fall.
Heat pumps donât work in the bulk of the existing housing stock. All home pre 1990âs -ish need to be replaced, pulled down and rebuilt -who pays? Heat Pumps use massive amounts of costly electricity where is it to come from?
Battery EVâs, plug-in Hybrids need lots of cheap electricity for charging. This Conservative Government after 13 years has still no plan to enable the UK, it people and its industry to have access to cheap affordable, resilient and reliable electricity for existing needs. That is before it piles in with additional consumption from heat pumps & battery cars.
13 years and still not thinking it through, a look at me, my self-gratification and ego is first and foremost.
July 24, 2023
further thoughts – NatWest Group CEO Alison Rose DBE is also Co-Chair of the government Energy Taskforce to accelerate the #WEF2030Agenda. The Taskforce aims to accelerate boiler upgrades to push #NetZero. #WEF Chancellor Jeremy Hunt welcomed the appointment back in February 2023.
July 24, 2023
Boiling the frog âŠ.they hope we donât notice till its too late
July 24, 2023
Indeed. The fact this Government supports all left wing leaders like Rose is proof, if any more needed, that all Westminster Parties are…….the same. ESG on the Tory watch. All woke b/s
July 24, 2023
Ian B
Allison Pearson
@AllisonPearson
The pledge to ditch petrol cars by 2030 is absurd.
Where are the EV charging points?
There will be a popular revolt.
Across Europe, countries are coming to their senses about undeliverable green promises.
Andrew Mitchell is full of ****
@BBCr4today
July 24, 2023
Mitchel is good for………..NOTHING. Ask any Cop guarding gates.
July 24, 2023
IAN B – That is why this Globalist UK Establishment government is pushing the EV agenda. CONTROL of the masses. I repeat. CONTROL.
July 24, 2023
Ian B
Richard Tice đŹđ§
@TiceRichard
You are even more out of touch than anyone could possibly imagine
Net Zero = Net Stupid
It is making us poorer & colder
is responding too…
Quote Tweet @AlokSharma_RDG
Given the economic, environmental and electoral case for climate action it would be self-defeating for any political party to seek to break the political consensus on this vital agenda
“break the political consensus”? Whose political consensus we need names!
July 24, 2023
The Uni Party!!! Any political consensus is always wrong. Capital Punishment. EU membership. Foreign aid. Illegal and legal immigrants. High taxes. HS2. Comprehensive Education. PC/ wokism. And on and on. We need change. We need Reform.
July 25, 2023
The Majorâs moronic ERM fiasco, the climate change actâŠ
July 24, 2023
Those providing public services on the front line are over-managed because there are too many layers of administrators; these supernumeraries produce bucket loads of bilge in the form of regulations
to guide the activities of medics confronted with patients on trolleys or
children in a classroom for example. They spend a lot of time attending meetings where they discuss whether their charges are successfully overcoming the various -isms-de-jour necessary to ensure parity of outcome. No one wants to be charged with -ism.
July 24, 2023
Well said John. This is absolutely what all of the politicians should be saying, that they are not shows how low quality our political class has become.
July 24, 2023
Block grants fund most public sector service delivery providers. Monopolies deliver them without personal jeopardy for the managers if they mess up. Nothing is driving performance improvements.
We should fund them wherever possible based on their outputs, with the public given the choice of alternative private or charity providers. If the government service goes bankrupt, fire everyone responsible for managing the service without any severance payments. Only with such disciplines in place will public services improve.
July 24, 2023
Agree with the comments. If you don’t discipline or sack people when they fail or don’t do the job properly, you get mediocrity!
One simple example is that the Governor of the BOE has not been sacked for total failure to control inflation.
Equally, stupid MPs nod through net zero legislation with no thought of the consequences! Sunak has a chance to win the next GE by dumping net zero, but he won’t. If he won’t listen now, after those stunning by-election defeats, he never will!
July 24, 2023
âIf we keep expanding the population we need to recruit and retain more qualified people to provide extra service.â
Serious question: is there any end to this âexpansionâ, or is it just accepted in parliament that it is limitless?
July 24, 2023
We know that the United Nations for no obvious reason believes that the population of this country can be almost tripled. How this squares up with protecting the environment is another headscratcher.
July 24, 2023
SirJ why has your government allowed the BBC weather to change its colour mapping to give the impression that things are hotter (darker reds), and why are they allowed to quote the satellite derived surface temperatures when the met norm is to quote the 1.25 meter high air temperature inside a vented box âŠalso to giving a false impression that things are hotter ? Please protect us from the false inputs & outputs of the Met & the BBC
July 24, 2023
“A well managed organisation has low rates of staff turnover” you say. Looks like Downing Street is anything but well managed! Housing Department for just one instance.
Rachel Maclean has become the sixth housing minister within a year at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. There have been 16 different housing ministers in the 13 years the Conservatives have been in power.
Is there any wonder why since 2010, we are building half the number of dwellings that we did in the sixties!
July 24, 2023
I’m not sure that all NHS trusts are failing to the same degree. The top 10 failing trusts on waiting times were instructive.
It would be more interesting to see the positive trust information. Which trust leaders are succeeding and why? A visit to an acute hospital in Oxford is a very different experience from the hospitals in Wythenshawe, Crewe or Stoke.
It would be good to see amounts spent per trust area in relation to outcomes ie numbers of patients treated for around five of the biggest categories starting with acute visits and treatments as those are the ones we get no choice at all with.
Does every trust area have an equal number of socially deprived patients on their registers?
July 24, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
Here are some extracts from the Prime Minister and Michael Gove’s just announced ‘New Focus on Inner-City Housebuilding Projects’ to aid the building of hundreds of thousands more houses every year in the UK.
“A new ‘super-squad’ of planners and other experts will be established, tasked with unblocking major housing developments.”
“To unblock bottlenecks in the planning system, Gove will announce an intention to invest ÂŁ24m in a planning skills delivery fund.”
“An ‘Office for Place’ – to lead a design revolution, making sure new homes are ‘beautiful’.” (whatever that means – my brackets)
So we have a concentration on inputs rather than outputs, how much extra money is being put in and how many extra people are appointed to provide the service.
I note you have been quoted as saying that the government should be concentrating on fixing the mortgage market and reducing migration instead. Legal migration into the UK totalled over 600,000 last year and illegal migration 52,000 and the UK built just over 200,000 homes last year. Incredibly, there are some in government calling for even more migration.
The MP for South Cambridgeshire has challenged the Government over its plans for a ‘new urban quarter’ in Cambridge saying all major developments are now blocked by the Environment Agency because we have quite literally run out of water.
The government has become an incoherent rabble.
July 25, 2023
Alan, interesting reading here https://www.michaelgove.com/news/long-term-plan-housing.
The first two Cities out of 20 are Sheffield and Wolverhampton; if you know them they both need help. Leeds still has a bit of green land in the centre that will never do!
The irony of having Stoke on Trent as the Office for Place is the least loved place in the UK, and years of Labour control have left the City on its knees, holding people down. The railway station isn’t connected to either the designated main shopping centre, a big mistake, or the main hospital! People pass through Stoke on either the M6 or the A500 it is one big D of dire design and transport hubs. The main motorway connection has been out of action for two years, my Nan used to have to share a taxi with three other hospital workers because there was no public transport to the hospital for workers, patients or visitors.
But what gets all the press – a beautiful Cambridge, well hold my tissue because us Northerners would love a project like that, instead we’re the ones who get box homes with tiny windows and no investment!
July 24, 2023
The difference between the public and private sector is competition. By and large the public sector has no competition and continues to underperform and just ask for more money.The private sector has to get it’s act together or be taken over or go bust.
July 24, 2023
That is it in a nutshell.
+1
July 24, 2023
Am feeling a little more optmistic that more people ( left and right ) have cottoned on to what’s going on.
July 26, 2023
The problem is that they can claim to be underfunded at all.
Private sector offerings are funded by their own revenues. They are limited by what they sell, from which they must bear th costs of producing and providing their output to the public and they keep the remainder as profits.
Public services don’t do that – or not any more. The NHS was originally funded by NI contributions (or at least that was one of its 3 aspects, pension and out-of-work benefits being the others). Even then it was too much of a mix, there should be a levy for each provision, thereby allowing us to see how much the NHS gets.
If there’s to be a national rail service, it needs to be funded by fares and fees alone. Then we can see what service it can offer. In view of falling demand, it should be a very much reduced one unless the railways attract business from commercial freight (which they should). Since they will then be competing with other transport methods (road, air, even canals) they will be forced to actually compete or seek government bailout…
It should be made clear from the outset that no bailout will be forthcoming and that senior management will only be paid a small basic salary with bonuses directly related to profits and service level performance.
They should be able to sub-contract work to the private sector, particularly workforce matters, so that there are no civil service/public body strikes trying to blackmail the public purse.