The Chancellor in his speech to conference last week stated that he is now onto the productivity problem in the public sector I have been highlighting:
He said
“We need a more productive state not a bigger state.
If we increase public sector productivity growth by just half a percent, we can stabilise public spending as a proportion of GDP. Increase it by more and we can bring the tax burden down.
Half a percent.
For those of us with private sector backgrounds that doesnât seem too much, does it? In the public sector, Iâm telling you, itâs harder â but we are up for the challenge.
So Iâve commissioned my deputy, John Glen, to restart the process of public service reform.
He wants to know why teachers say more than half of their time is not actually teaching.
âŠwhy police officers complain they spend longer filling out forms than catching criminals.
âŠand why doctors and nurses say they spend up to half their time not with patients but on admin.
Of course we need modern working practices and better IT. But the Treasury too needs to change its focus from short term cost control to long term cost reduction.
And weâre going to start with the Civil Service.
We have the best civil servants in the world â and they saved many lives in the pandemic by working night and day.
But even after that pandemic is over, we still have 66,000 more civil servants than before.
New policies should not always mean new people.
So today Iâm freezing the expansion of the civil service and putting in place a plan to reduce its numbers to pre-pandemic levels.
This will save ÂŁ1 billion next year.
And I wonât lift the freeze until we have a proper plan not just for the civil service but for all public sector productivity improvements.
That means, amongst other things, changing our approach to equality and diversity initiatives. Smashing glass ceilings is everyoneâs job â not a box to be ticked by hiring a diversity manager.
But Iâm going to surprise you with one equality and diversity initiative of my own, trust me youâll like this one: nobody should have their bank account closed because someone else decides theyâre not politically correct. Weâll tighten the law to stop people being debanked for the wrong political views.”
Comment:
The government should aim to recoup the lost 7.5% of productivity since 2020 as quickly as possible. Freezing civil service posts will both help raise productivity as natural wastage brings numbers down, and will act as a stimulus to the senior managers of public services to hasten the restoration of the levels of productiv9ity hit in the last decade and lost so far this. There is a £30 bn saving to be won from just doing things as well as the government did in 2019.
October 8, 2023
‘We have the best civil servants in the world’. Some Tories just can’t help themselves. Get off your knees before the pro-EU woke scum (vicious Labour and their woke nomenklatura) destroy us all, demonise white men and crush free speech and normal discourse..
The Left in power will politicise and weaponise all life, language, human relationships, work place and speech. The Tory party have naively aided and abetted this toxic politics. Tory party stupidity and self-centred behaviour cannot be measured
October 8, 2023
+++
Tories just donât understand who their friends are.
They never have.
I think that since recent teeny right-moving steps the polls have shifted a bit in Tory favour.
Doesnât even THAT tell them what we have been saying now for years?
People do not want woke!
October 8, 2023
The do not want woke, net zero, or big high taxing government. They never wanted HS2 either not open door immigration so leave the ECHR.
We need a state sector of about half the size doing just the things the state needs to do efficiently. Law and order, defence and a bit of infrastructure very little more.
October 8, 2023
Blaire changed and politicised the civil service, police, judiciary and private business by S.172 Company Act with Equality babble that was nothing of the sort. Tories could and should have got shot of the lot. They chose not to. To make Tories shift to the left, Cameron changed selection of MPs he insulted his supporters with Turnip Taliban, swivelled eye loons etc. Cameron stated his greatest achievement was Gay marriage- which he had no mandate or even included in Queenâs speech. His side kick made clear they lied over immigration which Blaire used to give the right a kicking!! We also know Cameron lied over sending a letter a letter to leave EU and implement the will of the people. He ran away and his cohorts colluded with Labour to stop it and only leave in name only.
14 years completed wasted by a party that has no direction heart or soul. Like Sunak followers of global institutions putting global ideology before the needs of the nation. Just go. Sunakâs legacy- a back stabber of his leader who plucked him from obscurity to give away N.Ireland to EU and act in lock step with EU. Oh, he also enacted WHO directive to ban smoking!
October 8, 2023
Exactly and idiotically Sunak wants to kill/reorganise A levels (yet again) and force people who do not wish to to study Math and English from 16-18 why.
Did we get anything positive at all from the Blair Brown era? Nothing I can see at all. Appalling pointless wars one on a lie, botched devolution, the political supreme court, every more EU, the appalling US extradition agreement… anything positive at all?
October 8, 2023
@Hope; ” Tories could and should have got shot of the lot. They chose not to. To make Tories shift to the left, Cameron changed selection of MPs he insulted his supporters with ..//.. etc.”
Perhaps, but in doing so he made the Party electable again, after the defeats of 2001 and 2005, neither Hague nor Howard, even IDS, were bad leaders, just that the polices put forward were simply not supported by the majority and thus undetectable, that’s what counts, not ideals, they just become 1983 style electoral nooses.
As for Cameron jumping ship after the Brexit referendum, can’t blame him, he never wanted Brexit (and did not expect a Leave result, nor did the pollsters, nor did UKIP!…), the problem was who then became Conservative leader and PM, unopposed due to candidate withdrawals.
October 8, 2023
+1
October 8, 2023
Lifelogic you are absolutely spot on about forcing maths on those who may not want to do it. My brother-in-law (who coincindently lives in Wokingham), tutored maths. His comment was that unless you had a talent for maths it was probably pointless doing extra lessons.
October 8, 2023
Vitamin D3 I meant.
October 8, 2023
Note high sun screen use can reduce Vitamin D3 hugely.
October 8, 2023
Too little. Too late.
The public are also increasingly sceptical of plans and promises.
October 8, 2023
Employees with less than two years service can be made redundant more easily.
So that is a starting point with the recent intake. Keep the useful ones, let the others go.
If the funding is reduced centrally then there will not be enough to maintain the current payroll. Redundancies will be inevitable.
Overall guidance may be provided. For example, many voters are not keen on overpaid âdiversityâ managers so they could go. Whole rafts of management could also be removed to make the chain of command more direct and efficient.
October 8, 2023
Change the law so you can get rid of anyone with a standard pay off of perhaps three months let them get another more productive job. Otherwise you might be firing good people just because they have been there less than 2 years.
October 8, 2023
â⊠stimulus to the senior managers of public services to hasten the restoration of the levels of productiv9ity hit in the last decade and lost so far this.â
Wishful thinking. They will just carry on regardless. The pension will not be far off, maybe a knighthood too.
Carrot and stick is no good. A degree of ruthlessness is required from the politicians in charge.
October 8, 2023
Easy hire easy fire would improve productivity hugely. Many people are swinging the lead hoping for large pay offs knowing they cannot easily be fired without large tribunal risks so daft are employment laws. So we suffer incompetent teachers, doctors, pilots, surgeons, HS2 and vaccine managing civil servants⊠not such a great plan.
October 8, 2023
Far too little far too late who would trust any promises made by the Tories or indeed Labour.
âPoliticians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”
October 8, 2023
Jerry,
Whatever happened to âconviction politiciansâ ?
So itâs all about âelectabilityâ now ?
That is your problem in a nutshell. People have simply had enough of careerists and chancers on the make. Blair being the prime example.
Cameron admitted he wanted to be âHeir to Blairâ. He was then followed by the status seekers and those who concentrated on looking after number one. Policies and promises were very often a secondary consideration.
People are now thoroughly sick of it all.
October 8, 2023
Exactly DOM. This was nauseous. By what criteria are our civil servants “the best in the world?”. Has the Minister commissioned a study (by our Civil Service) that supports this ?
And as for saving people in the pandemic, Amnesty international commented: ” Key failings included decisions to discharge thousands of untested hospital patients into care homes and imposition of blanket DNARs
Care home managers and staff say they were left without guidance, PPE or access to testing”.
And what of excess deaths since the oh-so-effective vaccine rollout?
The Minister needs replacing.
October 8, 2023
Dom,
We had the promises of change for the civil service with appointments of Maude, Cummings etc. in stark contrast Cameron wanted to change his party by hiring former Labour ministers! Milburne, Odonis etc. Why did he not choose former Conservative ministers? He shifted Tories to the left of New Labour and lauded his love for Blaire by claiming to be his heir!
October 8, 2023
Francis Maude was the man responsible for the âpreferred supplierâ approach to government outsourcing. Once they got a foot in the door there was no looking back – just guaranteed profits for years to come !
I wonât name these suppliers, but they will be familiar from the prison service, IT provision, the London Olympics etc, etc.
Just like official public employees, but more costly and just as useless.
October 8, 2023
Yes ICL was the beneficiary of the same âgiftâ from Wilson.
Remember them ?
Everything the Government touches turns to ashes.
October 8, 2023
We are told Civil Servants are wonderful, our woke largely inactive police, our legal systems a Rolls Royce system (went well with innocent Irish âTerroristsâ and Post Office managers did it not?) And the NHS is the envy of the world too arenât we so lucky.
October 8, 2023
DOM, ++++++++
October 8, 2023
+1
October 8, 2023
The UK first needs to achieve higher productivity in the *private* sector to create more and better employment opportunities, needed when higher productivity in the public sector inevitably leads to forced jobs losses, as otherwise I’m not sure were any meaningful ‘natural wastage’ comes from given the State retirement age keeps increasing; without more private sector jobs is there not a risk that circular public sector salaries will simply morph into redundancy, universal credit and CT benefit circular payments etc?!
Reply We have a labour shortage!
October 8, 2023
Sir John – we don’t have a labour shortage. With a million plus on ill health benefits we have a shirker surplus. Get those (and others on benefits) into jobs and we would have plenty of workers.
Before others criticise, these individuals will feel better in themselves if they did work and achieve things. They’d also have more to aspire to and more money to spend.
October 8, 2023
To SJR: Please tell John Glen to start where he works in the Treasury by cutting many of the 10 million words in the UK tax code which muddle and waste the simple process of collection.
October 8, 2023
@PeterB; Nice rant! But said, no doubt, without knowing a single person with an occupational caused illness or disability.. Broad-brushes are soundbites, or good for sweeping floors, not policies to get (re-)elected on…
October 8, 2023
Take a look at The Centre for Social Justice website, Jerry. Over 700,000 of those on sickness benefits want to work (report May 2023). Incidentrally this report also states 3.7m people are on benefits with no work requirement – about 10% of the total UK working age population are exempt from needing to work. Really?
You can criticise my phrasing but the target outcome works for everyone.
October 8, 2023
@PeterB; Wanting to work is different from being able to do the *available* work! Yes retraining can help, but even then there often needs to be both WFH and (highly) Flexible options.
October 8, 2023
I do not agree Jerry, While many have been injured by the WHO experiment , there are far too many shirkers.
The welfare state has got too big !
October 8, 2023
5.6 million on welfare in all its forms. Enough said.
October 8, 2023
Often working gives you very little more to spend after tax, commuting, loss of benefits, child care, less time to shop efficiently, cook, diy⊠that is the problem.
October 8, 2023
Sickening (literally) to pick up one’s prescription – having struggled to get to work with a sore foot – from the chemist to be asked “Do you pay tax ?”
“Yes”
“Well here’s another ÂŁ10 charge on you.”
What bliss NOT to work in Tory Britain !
A total and utter abandonment of their core vote. I can’t WAIT to kick them out. I resent their pensions too. They have been employed under false pretences and their pensions need to be reclaimed.
October 8, 2023
@JR Reply; Agreed! But not in the sort of jobs average ex-public sector workers are likely to look for, nor be able to fill even if they do. If you want meaningful jobs exchange, not something forced post taxpayer funded redundancy, it works best on a like-for-like basis -or are civil servants going to be exempt from this productivity blitz.
October 8, 2023
No, we don’t have a labour shortage. We have far too many people employed in the public sector, many of them doing very little for their income and overly-generous pensions. Get them out of the public sector and make them WORK for a living.
October 8, 2023
All the labourers are paid by the government yo stay home!
October 8, 2023
We’ve heard it all before. Bonfire of Quangos, remember
The civil service is too powerful and will continue hiring inclusion and diversity staff just like the NHS.
October 8, 2023
This is desperate stuff from Hunt. I got as far as this:
“We have the best civil servants in the world â and they saved many lives in the pandemic by working night and day.”
I didn’t bother with the rest of the bovine excrement. Not one Civil Servant saved a single life during the scamdemic although I’m sure some doctors and nurses did. But tragically their efforts have been nullified by the appalling consequences of Big-Pharma-funded $cientists, and Quangocrats pushing poorly tested, experimental gene therapies (they’re NOT vaccines) which have resulted in 1.5 million reported “adverse effects” and 2,272 reported deaths, in the UK alone. And that’s before we get onto the 36,300+ EXCESS deaths in the first 9 months of this year.
As for Hunt reforming the Civil Service ….. like he reformed the NHS when he was in charge for 6 years and left it incapable of coping with a Low Consequence Infectious Disease with a mortality rate of 0.2%?
October 8, 2023
Donna, +++++++
October 8, 2023
Donna – As I have commented many times before here, The REAL conspiracy theorists believe their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical / medical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure them. FOLLOW the MONEY. People are irrelevant.
October 8, 2023
+1
October 8, 2023
So Hunt thinks it is hard to improve public sector productivity by 0.5%. Seemed pretty easy to let it drop 7.5% over the last 3 years. Just undo what was done in that period.
October 8, 2023
It would be easy to increase state productivity by 100% with half the staff. First fire all those producing nothing or value or doing net harm like net zero, diversity officers, the woke lunacy, the road blocking agenda, the planning blocking agendaâŠ
October 8, 2023
I have no doubt it is difficult, probably impossible. Why? because there is no incentive for those that should be more productive to be so. I recently looked at a public sector job application process, there is more about ‘woke’ compliance conditions than the actual job to be done. That tells you how you get promoted up the system.
October 8, 2023
If productivity is so poor and yet the number of employees has grown and they have got all the junky IT stuff on handâŠwhat on earth are they doing? And how pray will âbetterâ IT help? It just generates more pointless tasks, and exposes workers to backache, RSI and eye strain.
They are working from home or allegedly even from foreign holidays, being promoted above their ability, probably still going on ludicrous courses, wading through pointless e mails and following barmy directives.
Probably also still using ooky tests to prove that they need a day off.( Because they have a cold).
Or as one CS said to another who was questioning the latest bonkers initiativeâŠ.
âThis is the job now!â
It is like expecting a steady supply of fresh bread when youâve torn up all the recipes, sacked the master bakers and brought in plasterers to bake the breadâŠand decided to use dandelions instead of yeast. Because yeast might be waaaycist!
October 8, 2023
What do they do?
Perhaps they are attending to the massive burden of legislation that government piles up. Same as the private sector.
The NHS has to document everything in case of a medical negligence claim. A difficult employee creates huge administrative burden because they can’t just sack him. Even then, they roll over because defending a claim costs too much. Even if the claim is fraudulent, the state facilitates it by making the tribunal free for the claimant.
To anyone successful in their new business and thinking of expanding by employing people. My advice is don’t, it’s not worth the risk.
October 8, 2023
Yes.
I agree. I have experienced the CS.
Dumped forever in a sh*thole by âmobile gradeâ.
Husband ground into dirt by CS job.
Son short-lived job nightmare in it.
Many others in family traumatised by it.
Even I experienced it ( Arrrrrgh!!!). Briefly very!
Latterly worst thing was the promotion of totally unfit persons.
Everything the govt.âs fault.or their mastersâ.
Economy REALLY crashing I see!
They say itâs all worse than under poor Truss.
October 8, 2023
The Home Office productivity must be rocketing however?
Do they measure theirs in the number of new arrivals welcomed?
Anyway, whatever. I am certain that the objective is to dispense with a civil service altogether. Or actually maybe the intention is to build a global CS with a global agenda? Iâm certain many muppets would Jemima Puddleduck-like sign up for that in a flash!
October 8, 2023
+1
October 8, 2023
Hunt speaks the truth. The UK is a country that is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Only the skill of the Treasury’s Debt Management Office at persuading the debt markets to provide short term day-to-day finance is keeping us afloat; Britain’s foreign currency reserves are minimal. Having to finance the interest payments on a national debt of ÂŁ2.4 TRILLION is bleeding us white at roughly ÂŁ80 billion a year. Even worse, the government is constantly adding to our debts; in the 2022-23 financial year, the government borrowed ÂŁ128.4bn. That was ÂŁ5.5bn higher than in the previous year (source BBC business news 05/10/2023)
Sunak printed more money when interest rates were close to zero than any Chancellor in history – and the time is fast approaching when he and Hunt will have to start printing more money to pay the interest on our debts. The value of sterling will collapse in a hyperinflationary spiral and the mother of all recessions will be the result.
The Austrian school teaches us that in these circumstances, only those who hold hard assets such as gold and silver will preserve their wealth. Those interested could read up on Ludwig von Mises
October 8, 2023
Sunak and the BoE caused the large inflation with his incompetence and now what credit for halving it. Perhaps the only one of his promises that he might just keep. In his speech he complains of the lack of an NHS workforce plan and say one is not being done. But was Hunt not health Sec. for 5 years but failed to make any sensible plans or reforms to the NHS state monopoly disaster. It needs fair competition with the private sector.
October 8, 2023
I guess as a ‘Stacker’ SG – you are enjoing the marginal utility of doing so? đ
October 8, 2023
@SG; So why isn’t our debt be renegotiated, if it is as bad as claimed, after all a default would not only damage the debt markets but would likely send contagion into every other market, as happened during the US subprime crisis in 2007. Sounds to me like someone trying to sell gold and silver, not make a serious comment on UK debt, even if the numbers are fact.
October 8, 2023
@Sakara Gold;”The value of sterling will collapse in a hyperinflationary spiral and the mother of all recessions will be the result.”, In my Opinion; This wouldn’t be such a bad thing! It’s the only way our politicians will enter into Reform, but the truth is, it will be the Poor that will suffer! Notice “Cutting benefits” was one of their first suggestions! Ignorance!
We need coherent Reform; to an Economic system that works, one that suits the UK; we need Flexibility, we need to Trade, in a world market, and to be Competitive, in doing it!
Lower Sterling; equalises more competitive goods and services! Can we be just Asset based, Asset trading? Look at our Banks!
Ludwig von Mises, or even, Friedrich von Hayek, 100%, but too late! Fiat Money is now controlled by the establishment in this Country, and the USA! I wish we could go back into everyone having Saving, and holding hard Assets (Not inflated house prices), with World Wide values (stable?)! But, even if it’s not matched by the Gold Standard, our Banks aren’t as well run as we are made to believe! The only way they seem to be able to make any money, is gambling! They make, and hold, our Money Supply for us, and they still can’t invest long, and manage short? Too much focus on trading! But, on the other side of the coin, we have Venture Capitalist that are far too expensive, and far too controlling, as if they were the source of the idea, in the first place!
We ought to be flattening our Social Structure, to make it work for everyone?
So, is Jeremy Hunt talking Reforms of the Self Employed, Owner Drivers, Contractors, and Family SME’s, and where are the Reforms of IR35, of all the Supply-side, de-regulation including a Strong Competitions Regulator?
Flattening down our Social Structures, down to these corporate structures, for the individuals/family, is the only real way we can ensure Opportunity for all!
This is not Marxism! It is Harden, efficient, Capitalism, working for everyone, flattened! Or, at least, everyone that enters into it! Risk/Reward, assuming there are open markets, access to capital, free enough for All to enter!
A Free Market Economy, with a working Price Mechanism (We do NOT have one now, and we are still stuck in a structured Economy)!
For Example; those within the Conservative Party that support Universal Credit, are actually, Marxist that relay on a hierarchical structure for Society, even Elitist! A Customs Union, and one in particular, the EU’s Customs Union!
My point is simple! If Jeremy Hunt wanted to really reform our Economy, surely, he’d start by reforming the Corporate structures, the Self Employed, etc,… , also, Supply-side reforms, de-regulation, but he is avoiding it!
He does not want to mis-align the UK Economy, away from the EU’s Customs Union!
So, the real questions are simple; why, or when?
Sorry, but in my opinion; Public Sector Reform is necessary, but not the priority!
Neither is cutting benefits! The Conservative Party has got us here! We need Reform of the Poor, Working Poor, and Blue Collar workers domain, Social Structure, first! A High Valued added Manufacturing, with Cheap Energy strategy! Strategic thinking would get you to flatten it down to the Self Employed, and then have a simple, fixed rate, even tapered, tax system!
Guiding the Reforms of the Self Employed needs to allow for Self Determination, high Value added, and a stable environment (Not enforced Price Takers). Meaning a simple tax rate and corporate structure, simple planning system, allowing them to also hold assets, even a house, or to build something!
But, for now, the truth is; The Conservative Party has let use down, and it’s becoming too late!
Wishing you the Best!
BR
October 8, 2023
Without detracting from your point you need to knock off the ÂŁ0.8 trillion held by the Bank of England:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/asset-purchase-facility/2023/2023-q2
The Treasury pays the interest on those gilts to the Bank but it is then recycled to the Treasury.
As I mentioned at the time the last Labour government ended up having to borrow a quarter of all the money it was spending, but George Osborne did not make a big thing of that.
For example, from February 2013:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2013/02/23/a-loss-under-plan-a/#comment-167299
“Osborne must take the blame, not only as Chancellor since May 2010 but as both Shadow Chancellor and Tory election supremo in the preceding year.
In 2009 the Labour government was having to borrow a quarter of all the money it was spending, and that reality should have been hammered home to the electorate again and again and again in simple terms that everyone could readily understand.
By May 2009 it had also become obvious that QE was being used not âto stimulate the economyâ but to enable the government to indirectly borrow from the Bank of England rather than private investors so that it could carry on with its over-spending in the year leading up to the general election.
Osborne also failed to explain what was going on with QE in simple terms that everyone could understand, with the result that come the general election most of the electorate still had little idea of just how serious the position was and just how painful the corrective measures would have to be, whichever party or parties formed the government after the election.”
Plus we have had the pandemic and the Ukraine war so it is not surprising that the debt is even higher.
October 8, 2023
Read Bernard Connollyâs new book about the central banks, remember Connolly? He who revealed that auditors refused to sign off the EU accounts – is it 30 years now or more?
There is no corruption in the EU or Ukraine đ€đ»
October 8, 2023
I see that in 2021 66,000 civil servants ‘identified themselves as carers’ (whatever that means). I can’t help wondering if they are among the numbers Hunt is trying to reduce, or if the 66,000 figure is just a numerical coincidence.
October 8, 2023
https://civilservice.blog.gov.uk/2021/06/07/valuing-our-civil-service-carers/
Seems to be all about them having more flexible work. A civil servant I know when she joined (this over 30 years back) was told in her work introduction on her first day just how many sick days she could take each year as if these were days in addition to her holiday which they all took I think it was 20 days four weeks PA or top of a similar number of holidays + bank holidays.
October 8, 2023
Perhaps the real political divided is the circa 20% who work for the state sector and the 80% who do not and have to compete to survive.
October 8, 2023
Alas this Con-Socialist government is for the 20%.
October 8, 2023
Now they have the working from home days too and a year off for Manopause and Menopause on top it seems. Then they retire early on huge gold plated pensions largely paid for by people with little or no pensions beyond the state one at perhaps 68 if they make it?
October 8, 2023
What other massive labour force would have the temerity to set such a pathetic target?
Trying to sell half one percent as an incredible mission frought with difficulties?
I’ll tell you how to do it within 3 months.
Every administration function, in every NHS sector should be forced to make redundant 1 state employee in every 100.
Simple.
October 8, 2023
They could probably achieve it just by ridding the Civil Service/Public Sector of all the dedicated Trade Union reps who do nothing but “represent” their members.
October 8, 2023
What is pathetic is that this is considered some sort of praiseworthy special initiative apart from the fact that we have heard it umpteen times before and nothing has happened.
In the private sector well managed businesses large and small do it day in day out, it is in their psyche, managers have ongoing performance targets. And of course the more successful they are the more they get hammered by the very people who have suddenly found âefficiencyâ
In the public sector we have weak business naive politicians (our host excepted) purportedly leading/guiding entitled mandarins who couldnât run a p.u. in a brewery.
Are your colleagues so detached from reality living in some sort of parallel universe?
October 8, 2023
Civil servants have wasted too much on needless admin for decades. Why has the Chancellor only raised it now, as if it has just been discovered, and as if such obvious areas of waste need research to know what they are? Anyone on the receiving end of contact with police, NHS, schools and other services can sense the foul stench of stagnant incompetence. âThe best civil servants in the worldâ is a rash claim without evidence; indeed he states evidence of the opposite in the same speech.
October 8, 2023
The civil service are an obvious drag on the economy as of now. The Chancellor could further assist by eliminating much of what they do, fewer tasks fewer people. Less intrusion and burden on the backs of the private sector. Contractual employment for the Whitehall CS could remove their aspirations to be a political force and allow hire and fire.
As an example the NHS with 47% none medical staff would benefit financially from a drastic cull.
The Chancellor, after his grey man speech at conference has much to prove, but I doubt his ability to create an enterprise society. It is not in his DNA.
October 8, 2023
I certainly do have a sense of ‘Horse & Cart’ here AG.
The more regulations, taxes and policies that have to be policed, collected and adminstered, the more Civil Servants you need to undertake the work. Unfortunately, Bureaucrats create more and more bureacracy, it’s a compounding system. So you cannot reduce their numbers unless you first remove the reason for their existance. Mr Hunt could start by tasking HMRC with halving the size of it’s printed manuals (by making the necessary tax simplifications). We are drowning in forms and form-fillers ( a disease made worse by our years within the EU) and it’s expensive in both money and quality of services delivered.
October 8, 2023
Perhaps if Hunt simplified the tax rules, and taxed less things we could slim down HMRC, it would save us all out here as well by not having to pay accountants to fill in complicated and lengthy tax forms for peace of mind even when our affairs are family basic.
Example:
Take the tax off of investment and savings income and a huge number of people would not need to contact HMRC in the first place.
October 8, 2023
Absolutely Alan!
October 8, 2023
Off topic, Neil Kinnock evidently favours the Stephen Fry school of economics:
https://labourlist.org/2023/10/labour-conference-brexit-eu-motion-neil-kinnock-clps/
âEveryone now knows that Brexit has inflicted, is inflicting, terrible costs and losses on our economy”
As “everyone now knows” that it must be true, even if it is not:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/10/03/brexit-britain-europe-economy-eu/
“Thanks to the tireless efforts of Julian Jessop from the Institute of Economic Affairs, we can reconstruct the cumulative growth of GDP from mid-2016 to mid-2023.
The data shows that the UK and France are level-pegging at just over 8pc, with Germany at 5.5pc and Italy at 5pc. Some eurozone states have yet to revise their figures fully, but the pattern is unlikely to change much.
The US and Canada have done better but they are beneficiaries of high oil and gas prices. They have not suffered the same shock from Vladimir Putinâs war.”
There is a nice bar chart there captioned: “Britain has not lagged Europe’s big economies since Brexit”; of course that should really be “since the EU referendum”, not “since Brexit”, but never mind.
October 8, 2023
More bluster from the non-Conservative gov.
October 8, 2023
And as if you need more confirmation of our âuselessâ protected Civil Service look no further than a ÂŁ300 million cock up by the DFEE. Anyone sanctioned. Ha. Ha. Ha!
October 8, 2023
Well, this all sounds brilliant. But a lot to achieve before the next election.
Rees-Mogg failed with the Westminster civil service. Because they just called him a bully. Which is what they will do again. Workers rights are now so powerful, they decide when they work & when deadlines are. The diversity & inclusion laws inhibit the management of workspaces, communication & discipline of staff.As do Trade Unions.
So, if Tories can deliver 50% of this plan it will gain them votes, no doubt! But it will require many senior management redundancies or demotions. Cannot see a Maggie Thatcher figure anywhere in the party. Other than Penny Mourdant. But she is a WEF devotee so untrustworthy!
But I will keep my fingers crossed that s miracle will happen.
October 8, 2023
I will never vote for Conservatives again because they have implemented large scale destructive policies with no political mandate – mass migration, lockdowns, NetZero, not removing unethical Human Rights laws etc.
I will use my vote and voice on line to tactically force the current leadership to be ejected from the party. Only after doing that will I consider voting conservative again.
October 8, 2023
It’s too little too late.
It’s time to deslect the socialists from the Conservative Party and prepare for the election after next.
October 8, 2023
LIke many viewers, I tuned in to watch the Laura Kuensberg programme on BBC1 so find that, astonishingly, she has been replaced today by Victoria Derbyshire. The LAbour Party converence programme is one of the most important of the year and to have the BBC Political Editor absent is astonishing. It has never happeend before.
At previous Labour conference she had to have a bodyguard so is this absence because she feels so threatened by Labour activists that she cannot appear ? That cannot be allowed to happen. If there is any other reason, the BBC needs to come clean about it.
October 8, 2023
Why do you use the words ‘come clean’ with the BBC? They do not understand the meaning of the words like you and I would.
October 8, 2023
All I can say is that this blog is worth its weight in gold. Pity they did not start taking its advice sooner, because it looks like the election will come too soon for them to recover.
Keep banging on John, and tell them that tempus fugit.
Of course we may have to abandon everything and go on a war footingâŠ
October 8, 2023
Utter madness, we want to make our adversary even stronger?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/07/uk-us-ukraine-eu-membership-expansion-funding-nato/
“UK and US quietly pushing for EU expansion to bolster Ukraine funding”
October 8, 2023
Warped people have warped priorities.
October 8, 2023
D+C – âUK and US quietly pushing for EU expansion to bolster Ukraine fundingâ
CORRECTION – It is the Globalist UK Establishment and the US Deep State pushing for EU expansion to bolstr Ukraine funding.
October 9, 2023
DC: Part of the headline – ‘Washington & London “invested” in plan that would see nine countries added to the bloc” So long as ‘London’ has not yet “invested” any part of the suggested Euros 250 billion that the EU needs to facilitate that, and then some, presumably, I’ll wait for further news. I assume we are still paying off our 39 billion and any fines in the pipeline for those infractions’ multi millions we occasionally hear about.
October 8, 2023
I phoned HMRC a couple of weeks ago. After an hour of waiting for them to answer with the constant message of how important my call was to them, they thanked me for my call and cut me off. I had to go through the gauntlet of options again putting in all my details and then waited another hour when they did eventually answer. I must add the operative was very polite and helpful. Now I have 2 hours of my life to waste but can you imagine the time lost by other people if you multiply this up? This is just one example but the same experience is across the board in every aspect of our lives. I remember in the 1970s we were told the introduction of computers would allow us to work a three-day week, now they are saying AI will take most of our jobs. What went wrong since we had a civil service of only 4,000 people running the whole British Empire to how things are run today? I can only think it’s the raft of regulations imposed by successive governments since that age.
October 8, 2023
Christine I have had exactly the same experience phoning HMRC but I had to make many more calls before my situation was finally resolved. The next best to being cut off is being told you need to call another number and start the long wait all over again đĄ
October 8, 2023
+1 đ€Ź
October 8, 2023
Osborne hired 2,000 more tax inspectors, May got rid of 20,000 police and then we had the Manchester bombing just before the election where we learnt the bomber was free to come and go from France!
October 8, 2023
Dâyou know when I first became self-employed I could just go along to the local tax office ( park my car easily) and actually speak with a tax inspector. That office dealt directly with my returns. So easy!
See what a TERRIBLE mess they have made of everyth8ng.
The wholesale destruction of our lives!
October 8, 2023
‘why police officers complain they spend longer filling out forms than catching criminals’
I’ve heard Tory Chancellors and Home Secretaries acknowledge this problem before and say it will be tackled yet here we still are.
‘nobody should have their bank account closed because someone else decides theyâre not politically correct’
Nor because they wish the bank to transfer the fiat money the bank owes them to the account of a firm selling a digital commodity.âIt’s not money laundering, it’s fleeing fiat.âBesides, the Paris based Financial Action Task Force, FATF, and their AML/KYC laws catch too little crime for the high overheads they impose.âDr Ronald Pol, @ronaldpol, former lawyer turned researcher, focuses on analysing AML’s costs and successes.âHis ’20 paper was published in Policy Design and Practice, PDF freely available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339486326_Anti-money_laundering_The_world's_least_effective_policy_experiment_Together_we_can_fix_it
October 8, 2023
You will never get productivity up if you do not get them back to the office.
October 8, 2023
Why has it taken so long to decide that the CS is too big and un- productive ?. Years ago when Sir William Armstrong was Head of the Civil Service he was very concerned about its effectiveness . He was in touch with the British Institute of Management for its assistance and a system of 2 year exchanges was established for key individuals in order to introduce change . At the same time a monthly meeting with the top end of the Civil Service ( Department Secretaries and Deputies ) and the leaders Industry and Commerce was also set up to facilitate a continuous smooth exchange of ideas and co-operation it became known as the ” Open Dining Club “. I was its Chairman until I retired in 1988 ; the successors to Sir William continued the programme and it was considered successful . My Committee included the Head of the BIM , Dame Anne Muller from the Cabinet Office and the Deputy MD of British Petroleum .
October 8, 2023
If the chancellor wants to know about productivity he should come and speak to the local butcher I recently rediscovered.
This may be their reaction to all the govt. nonsense ( I will have to ask) but they are open EVERY day from 7am until 6pm.
And they are not young menâŠbut really they are wonderful.( And where ARE the young men? Put off by govt. propaganda to end the meat trade!).
AND they are real, proper, skilled butchers. And helpful and polite and nice.
(And they get whole carcasses).
October 8, 2023
True – but sad to hear that you’ve only rediscovered them. We’ve been loyal to ours (and the local grocers) for decades… and look ten years younger for it.
October 8, 2023
“We have the best civil servants in the world ”
Oh yes. And our NHS is the envy of the world, our police our wonderful and so is the BBC.
What a crock. The man is delusional.
October 8, 2023
“Brave” words from the Chancellor, at last. But will they last?
Given the insidious power of the Civil Servants Union, I do wonder if they will allow it.
Never in our history has so much damage been done to our democracy by so few, where work-from-home has become a rigid right and rite!
October 8, 2023
I fail to understand the comment at the end. How does freezing civil service posts automatically increase productivity?
It could, for example, lead to people being overworked and becoming demoralised, thus doing less and producing less.
There are clearly problems with the civil service (but more to do with lack of effort rather than normal “productivity” issues in the economics sense) but much of the problem is also with the methods used by the ONS to measure productivity. Economics is at best a nascent discipline which, strangely, seems to have become set in stone. In a way, it is yet another of their “models” which needs to be constantly revisited.
The problem with productivity is that there is not way of knowing that the model is wrong, since (unlike other models they use) there is no actual value to compare aghinst in the fullness of time.
I suspect our host, like many who studied economics, finds it difficult to see that there are advances to be made in the world of economics – there’s a key difference between a pure discipline such as mathematics and one such as economics which relies on human development of techniques and understanding.
When a passport renewal takes longer than before lockdown, despite having more staff, at risk of conducting root cause analysis from afar, it seems clear that that’s not so much a “productivity issue” as a workforce management issue – which happens to manifest itself as low productivity numbers.
October 9, 2023
Freezing Civil service jobs must be his toe-in-the-water test. This speech I fear, was written by Civil Servants for the benefit of civl servants.
Of course, some will leave over the course of the next year thus automatically reducing the size of their numbers. Sadly, it will not reduce them by the tens of thousands required to actually produce a rise in productivity.
However the authors of his speech believe the Chancellor will now be seen to be doing something to address the problem, even though he’s not. Sir Humphrey still rules OK.
October 8, 2023
The great advantage of long term solutions is that nothing need be done before the next general election. This is clever tactics by Sunak and Hunt. Headline grabbing announcements, they hope, will garner enough votes to keep them in office. That is their main objective as if that alone is the best outcome for the UK.
The Tory Party regards the national interest as of secondary importance to its being in office.
October 8, 2023
O Gord, here we go, all rather late too. It’s only because an election is coming up. If it was something believed by your deceitful party we would not be where we are now, but Sir John likes to do this piece of party publishing. Just puts up an advisory comment, nothing critical or radical.
And here we also go on bragging that we as a country have the best; another grovel to those who are causing the problems. A minister brags we are ‘the best’ in the failure area; on another day another will brag we are the best in something else. It is sickening – bragging is why we fail. Such arrogance is a disgrace. If we are the best why would we be where we are, falling as a country in just about every list there is, except wokeism. Criticism of that has only arisen when votes are thought about.
October 8, 2023
“Too little too late” is the refrain dominating all the comments sections on all the articles I’m reading in the Conservative leaning press. The Tories went against what their voters explicitly asked for – often 180 degrees to it.
The Conservative press is telling us not to vote for Starmer. Strange. Of course, we were never going to do that but there is a palpable feeling that people aren’t going to vote Conservative anymore. We have to ready ourselves for a Labour government which is quite unbelievable. No-one seems to want one but that’s what we’re going to get.
October 8, 2023
How many times do we have to put up with the initiatives of dim-witted Herberts who have done zero research before sticking their oars in? If you want to find out how to organise a health service go to the continent: there are plenty there better. If you want to find out how to organise education go to Singapore etc. But its probably true the more Arts graduate administrators is not the answer whatever the question.
October 8, 2023
Empty vessels,once again, we have heard it all before. Nothing will happen.
Only when Donald J Trump is installed as the rightful President of the USA will anything happen and Panic will then ensue. Nothing can stop what is coming, NOTHING.
October 8, 2023
A modest increase in civil service numbers was justified by Brexit, simply because all of the tasks undertaken in Brussels are now done in Britain. BUT improvements in technology should more than have compensated for that number of extra jobs.
The situation is much worse : the increase in numbers is ridiculous. I would insist on a reduction in numbers of staff in each department equal to the numbers each has taken on since the beginning of the Pandemic, plus a further 10%.
The presumption should be “last in first out” because that would be the least costly method.
Furthermore, I would want a reduction in the number of the most senior grades of at least a further 20% and
I would also end the final salary scheme for all new entrants from now on.
October 8, 2023
We have the best civil servants in the world ? How are they better than those in – say – Norway ? Or Singapore ? Or Poland ? Or has he just made it up based on no evidence at all ? Heâll be telling us next that the NHS is the envy of the world.