Our constitutional practice used to beĀ based around the fundamental proposition that government power must be accountable and this is best done by Ministers reporting to an elected Parliament on the conduct of government. Ministers have to defend the actions of their officials and departmental administrations, or explain what action they are taking to correct mistakes, reform policies and change personnel where things go wrong. Ministers are meant to decide and civil servants are meant to advise. In the toughest version of the doctrine Ministers had to resign for mistakes made by officials which they knewĀ nothing about until they came to light with the damage they caused.
This practice could scarcely apply to a large number of areas of government activity when we were in the EU that came under EU regulation, directives and court decisions. There was no serious attempt to think through the consequences of these changes. Ministers usually shouldered the burden of responsibility for laws and decisions taken in Brussels, even where they had opposed them. The public decided to sort this out and reassert the need for genuinely accountable Ministers who could change laws and policies where needed by voting to leave the EU legal structures. With EU laws and policies Ministers could face failing policies which they were both blamed for and could not change.
In recent years under governments of all three main UK parties this has been furtherĀ modified. There has a growing enthusiasm for so called independent bodies. Many politicians came to the conclusion that it was better to appoint specialists to run quangos that could take big decisions, make a wide range of rules under statute, enforce rules, impose penalties , spend large budgets and set out blueprints for the future. The Bank of England gained control of interest rates and money policy. The Environmental Agency set policy on water and flooding. NHS England gained more control over health budgets and management. TheĀ vast HS2 project was run by an independent highly paid team of managers.
As we survey the surge in inflation and the giant bond losses of the Bank, the flooded farmsĀ and the pollution of rivers from the Environment Agency, and the huge waiting lists at the NHS the public demands Ministers sort it out. They do not want to hear that the main budgets and powers are all exercised by highly paid managers who insist on independence from Ministers. HS 2 showed that high pay with plenty of independence didĀ not necessarily produce a good outcome.
There is much to be said for reasserting the original idea thatĀ Ministers can direct and alter the management of these bodies as they will take the blame when things go wrong. Some things done by quangos would be better done directly by the sponsor government department, cutting overheads. Ministers may wellĀ opt for substantial management delegation, but need to find good managers they trust and who deliver to make that model work. They need to to be able to reward and promote them and in bad cases to remove them. They need full ,access to important information about the way the service and the policies are working out.
Appointing Ministers who know the subject or who have an enthusiasm for it would help. Keeping them in post for long enough to have an impact and to know the area well is important. A Minister likeĀ Nick Gibb was allowed to work in Education where he was a great advocate of synthetic phonics to improve reading abilities. More importantly he was allowed long enough there to make a big difference and see the results of his approach come through with better literacy scores. We need more of that.
October 31, 2023
Good morning.
Sir John
The thing that the EU and QUANGO’s have in common is they are both used as means to ‘Firewall’ Ministers and government from poor policies and decisions. The classic, “Not me guv’ !” Well I am sorry, that will never wash.
None of the aforementioned work for the general public because by their very nature they ALWAYS end up working for themselves. This means that they too try to ‘Firewall’ themselves from blame and will always deflect bad news away from them and put it straight back on to the government with we the people being caught in the middle.
I do not blame the government or some other body for the choices that I make, so long as those choices are made freely. I do blame government irrespective of who is at fault when I am given little or no choice as it is government that is the creator of laws. Even back when we really were part of the EU and the EU was making our laws, it was government that kept us in until The Glorious Referendum of 2016 when we the people demanded that we wanted those we elected to make our laws and take responsibility. Sadly that simple message was lost on those we elect as they are, to me at least, nothing but ‘rent-seekers’.
And as for the Legislature holding the Executive to account, please do not try and pull that one over me. All that is happening is that the political party in power marking its own homework with the Executive via the Whips calling the shots. We have seen what happens when one MP goes of Piste.
Democracy my a****
October 31, 2023
Very good analysis. We have a PM and ministers who are too young and inexperienced to do their jobs. (One might say they just want to hang on long enough to get a peerage and a TV gig). This might be mitigated by experienced civil servants, but it is now clear the opposition party isn’t only on the other side of the house, it’s throughout Whitehall.
October 31, 2023
In Enoch Powell’s day all political careers ended in failure,now they merely end in (well remunerated)reality TV irrelevance.
October 31, 2023
One apparent exception: Harold Wilson resigned ‘out of the blue’ in the 1974-79 parliament. In hindsight he was worn-out and had serious health issues coming. But it was a good example of a resignation at the ‘right time’ so he’s mainly remembered for his successes, e.g. Open Univ, not for failures. If only all PMs were limited to Wilson’s total term of office (eight years).
W.r.t the financial system, why have elected governments abrogated power to private unelected organisations, namely central and commercial banks. The US Fed is private, the BIS is private. BIS pretty well runs the world banking system in secret and helped set up the (un-democratic) ECB.
Why don’t elected governments bring the power to create money back in-house and shift away from fractional reserve banking, which can’t cope with a likely future of zero growth? Switzerland had a referendum on this a few years ago. It lost but it was always seen as only a first try. No other countries seem to be aware of the issue.
On the case for ministers who know their subject, hear hear. But I can only think of three MPs in my age range (60s or 70s) who have a STEM degree:
David Davis – biochemistry/molecular biology degree
Andrew Bridgen – biology
Graham Stringer – chemistry.
November 1, 2023
Russia,China,Iran,N Korea and their growing list of friends and allies are VERY well aware of this ” issue”.
For the benefit of all those on here who keep prattling on about Marxism(but probably to a wo/man have never read Marx),the prevailing financial system is the very essence of fascism.It needs to go!
October 31, 2023
JR, your party operates a quota system for selection of MPs! It is not about ability or merit but about ethnicity and sex. Therefore the basis of your blog is not based on fact or record.
Drakeford wants to base his quota system on trans men being allowed women on all women selections and Harman the same with the exception, of course, of her late husband!!
Most MPs incompetent to perform the role of minister and used to civil servants telling them what the EU will implement and the narrative they must use to create the illusion it was govt policy! This is why Sunak follows instruction from quangos, civil service, WEF, WHO, UN etc. not lead or innovate Govt. policy.
October 31, 2023
Nicely put.
We are largely governed (ie controlled) by Regulations created by Quangos and Statutory Instruments created by the Government – neither of which are subject to any kind of democratic control.
As Starmer (being honest for once) admitted – he’d rather be in Davos, because that’s where the real work gets done, than Westminster which is just tribal theatre.
October 31, 2023
Donna – DAVOS is a Globalists Paradise.
October 31, 2023
or even a PM!
October 31, 2023
Sunak who even now does not seem to realise that he as Chancellor with his approval of vast QE, lockdown funding and the huge government waste, duff Covid loans, the net zero rip off energy agenda & excessive taxes was the main cause of all the inflation and economic problems!
October 31, 2023
LL :
Of course he realises it what he has done!
The question is, was it incompetance or deliberate?
October 31, 2023
@ Mark B +1 – and as we saw with the attempts made by Truss & Kwarteng, in a hurry turn things around and get the Country on track to becoming a dynamic free Democracy they got massively briefed against by those in fear of their jobs. Then a soft option, a more compliant option that was able to take orders was forced on the Country. The Truss & Kwarteng presentation may not have suited some, but the need they identified and direction of travel was all about the UK, not themselves.
To become a proper Democracy the UK still needs the massive shake up, the realignment of power. A Government taking charge and a Parliament holding them to account. Thatās something that is being held back, put in the corner by those who have assumed control as the UK’s overlords who want to mirror the EU method of control. They will fight any form of Democratic rule as they know they will then be found out and their jobs will be on the line.
October 31, 2023
Much truth in this. A vote every five years for the least bad option of two or three party candidates under FPTP voting, or in many areas just zero choice as Labour or Conservatives will always win anyway. Is not remotely democracy especially as those elected who promise X before elections usually deliver the complete reverse post election. Then we have loads of vested interests, crony capitalism, corruption and fraud plus the international unelected organisations like the WHO.
JR says āAppointing Ministers who know the subject or who have an enthusiasm for it would helpā No very easy How many MPs even have a decent physics A level (2% perhaps). Let alone a decent science or engineering degree. The department for transport still claims or lie on their web site that walking and cycling cause no CO2 direct or indirect per mile. So clearly they are totally deluded. Two people walking (fuelled by human food) can cause more CO2 and use more energy than a small car does if you do the calculations correctly. A full car is far more efficient, quicker, more convenient and far safer (even on our dire potholed and deliberately obstructed roads). It would seem no one in authority in the whole of the transport department understands physics or transport engineering.
October 31, 2023
Yes I get all that Sir John, but what does it matter as the blame of ā carbonā that trace gas is not causing anything.
The Climate scam is just a control method just like the naming of storms we have alwaus had in winter. The mantra is ā be scared , very scaredā Is failing as most now see through the antics.
November 1, 2023
+1
October 31, 2023
@Mark B; Seems to me Mark, for you democracy is only democracy when you are getting what you want; exemplified by your refusal to accept the electorate were never asked HOW we should leave the EU, only if we should leave.
Much of the damage done, since 2016, was caused by people like you, to scared to risk allowing democracy to actually have a say – heck the world even had the spectacle of the UK government being taken to their own Supreme Court for shutting down the mother of democracy (the UK parliament) in an attempt to stymie democratic debate and voting.
Democracy, you don’t understand the meaning of the word! š”
October 31, 2023
jerry – please explain in as few words as possible how you would phrase the Referendum for ‘HOW we should leave the EU, yes or no? No paragraphs, ifs, buts, maybes allowed.
October 31, 2023
@MT; “please explain in as few words as possible how you would phrase the Referendum for āHOW we should leave the EU”
———————————————-
Should the United Kingdom Leave the European Union by way of;
[ ] WTO rules
[ ] EFTA/EEA rules
———————————————-
November 1, 2023
Further to the short answer requested by @MT. The methodology of the referendum would have weighted the Art.50 negotiations, a result with a broadly even split would likely have seen what we now have in the Johnson WA; a strong vote for WTO rules might have even lead to a full WTO exit; a strong vote for EFTA/EEA would likely have seen either BRINO or the UK asking to join either the EEA or EFTA.
This all assumes a referendum with more that two options is impossible, yet in Switzerland multiple choice referendums are far from unknown…
October 31, 2023
Indeed MT.
You reveal an absurdity.
It is a ridiculous point Jerry makes.
November 1, 2023
@MiB;’ Yes chipping in before checking the answer is an absurdity!
October 31, 2023
ā¦Caused by people like youā¦.
You really are an arrogant bore who writes utter tosh. You do not know Mark B.
October 31, 2023
big grin….
November 1, 2023
@Hope; Whatever, the feeling is mutual by the way, but only one of us wants to stymie the debate…
November 2, 2023
Personal attack on Mark B is not debate. Utter drivel.
November 3, 2023
@Hope; Yours is the utter drivel, unless you are also going to tell @DOM and many others to stop attacking those on the left, ask him to moderate his language, by comparison my comments to Mark were the with the upmost politeness…
Seem to me Hope you are more than happy reading personal attacks, masquerading as ‘debate’, just so long as they do not shine a candle on the antics of those you agree with.
Whatever.
October 31, 2023
Mark B has summarised the situation quite succinctly.
October 31, 2023
Appointing ministers who know their job. An unlikely scenario when the majority are PPE graduates with no real world experience.
Lions lead by donkeys springs to mind.
October 31, 2023
Well said Ian+Wrag!
October 31, 2023
Human nature 101, the corruption of power. It is very much in the interest of these independent organisations to fail. Then blame resources and blackmail the Government for more budget. The NHS even has 70 million hostages to help them play this game.
The inevitability of this behaviour is obvious from the outset. Oh why cannot the majority of politicians join dots?
October 31, 2023
and after clear failure, the merry-go-round starts to move the offender somewhere else!
October 31, 2023
Indeed that total lack of free and fair competition between state virtual monopolies (the NHS or Schools) and private is one of the main problems. Get the money back to the tax payers and let them choose how they want to pay for healthcare or schools. Why do fair competition authorities always ignore unfair competition from the state sector?
October 31, 2023
Oh why cannot the majority of politicians join dots?
Well as you say “It is very much in the interests of these independent organisations to fail” but very similarly ministers and MPs have their own self interests which are very different from those of the public who elected them. Say one thing to get elected and then post election their main interest are consultancies, jobs, not losing the party whip that got them elected, dealing/trading on inside information – the voters are way down the list for most MPs. Even when they do try to help the public it often backfires. Protections for tenants actually harm tenants, protections for workers mean good workers end up carrying layabout workers who cannot be fired easily!
October 31, 2023
No all MPs of course (JR and perhaps 100 others) but alas the majority.
October 31, 2023
I agree with you SJR – if the buck stops with ministers then they should most certainly have greater input, influence, and some knowledge and expertise in what they are responsible for! Currently, they are scapegoats for dismal performance of those quangos, as you referenced.
October 31, 2023
Many would think that the government of the day was responsible for the current disastrous situation with public services. The fact is that the UK has lost the ability to manage large organisations, those highly paid managers which you discuss are obviously incompetent. In the private sector, the shareholders, independent board members or the banks carrying their loans would demand their dismissal.
The heads of underperforming QUANGOs should suffer consequences for their performance, not large bonuses and index-linked, non-contributory final salary pension schemes
October 31, 2023
@SG; “In the private sector, the shareholders, independent board members or the banks carrying their loans would demand their dismissal.”
Only trouble there Sakara, the banking crash of 2007/8, for example, did not happen overnight, it was years in the making, yet all the time the very people you suggest would carry the can were raking in massive bonuses and just look at the current pickle one High Street bank has got its-self into when someone had to carry the can. The only thing the shareholders cared about, until it all went pear shaped, were their own dividends etc, by then it’s to late.
The problem within the public sector, with massive bonuses and golden good-byes, has been imported from the private sector, otherwise those public sector could never attract the (supposed) correct level of talent.
October 31, 2023
Yet all governments, and yours is a farcical example, have reshuffles every five minutes – putting people in charge of a department they know nothing about.
But what if he was wrong! Surely a teacher with 30 years experience of teaching children to read would know best.
Ministers are there ultimately to make sure a department delivers results for the money they are given.
In the final analysis – the public sector is far too large. The more money you give it, the more it wastes. And government stands idly by while the whole public sector employs ādiversity officersā.
October 31, 2023
Most teachers only know how and what they have been taught to teach. Unfortunately teacher training has long been infected by the dogmatic march through the institutions – the blob recognised by Gove that he never got round to tackling. Teachers with 30 years of experience have survived by presiding over a massive dumbing down of the education system accompanied by a concomitant decline in productivity. We are reaching the stage where a school leaver at 18 is often no better educated than great grandparents who left school at 14.
October 31, 2023
Notwithstanding your points, any teacher with experience of teaching children to read will have a much better idea than an MP with a PPE degree to their name.
October 31, 2023
@Mark; I wonder what the average length of a Teachers service/employment is at Schools like Eton, I doubt it is anything like ‘Mr Chips’ reign but nor do I expect they suffer high churn either.
As for the massive dumbing down of the education system, at least within the State sector, in the last 40 years it wasn’t Teachers nor their trade unions who inflicted the National Curriculum on our children, nor SATS, it was government Ministers!
November 1, 2023
Correct.
October 31, 2023
There was a time when MPs had second jobs and/or careers which provided a broad background base of experience which could help them once in ministerial office. Today, it seems, many are career politicians from their earliest days as assistants, SPADs then as MPs. This trend towards a political monoculture cannot be helpful for better performance once they attain ministerial office.
October 31, 2023
‘cannot be helpful’? more like is going to be disastrous.
October 31, 2023
Agree John. The deep state is too big, too powerful and unaccountable often to ministers or the public. Too often they are following their own ideologies. However, governments can use them as tools to push hard policies in ways most of the electorate (nor the credulous media) will not link back to government, Net Zero again being a case in point. Rearranging financial ESG rules so companies can’t get financing or favourable loan interest rates unless following the ideologies pushed by the UN and WEF and enforced by QUANGOS.
October 31, 2023
Clearly the present system is broken, as virtually nothing is working well, but is still costing the taxpayer ever larger sums of money.
Do any of the Political Party’s have a clue how to fix it ?
In a word no.
Ministers seem to change jobs with such regularity, that I actually do wonder if they remember to turn up at the right location at times.
People are put in charge of huge departments who have little people management experience, or financial skill or aptitude, is it any wonder politics is failing.
Not an easy task to solve as those involved appear to be wedded to “The System” which has proven to be unfit for purpose.
We seek change, but none of the above appears to be the answer.
October 31, 2023
BA : “Ministers seem to change jobs with such regularity, that I actually do wonder if they remember to turn up at the right location at times.”
Yes, I expect only because a chauffeur driven car comes to collect them.
October 31, 2023
Gosh …. it sounds like Sir John is suggesting a bonfire of the Quangos. Now where have I heard that before?
It’s a bit like the regular pre-election briefing that “the Chancellor is thinking about abolishing/reforming Inheritance Tax.” And then it never happens.
Oh and “we will reduce immigration.” Instead it goes up EVERY year.
Perhaps Sir John could tell us how many times the Not-a-Conservative-Party thinks it can fool enough of the people to get another 5 years in which it can continue to dismantle the country?
October 31, 2023
“good managers they trust”
Best of luck trying to find them. Such people are moulded by a system of discipline. However, in modern Britain that’s labelled as bullying and isn’t allowed.
October 31, 2023
and you might hurt their feelings telling it how it is.
October 31, 2023
Off topic:
“Australiaās Maritime Safety Authority has issued a domestic commercial vessel safety alert on the risks of ferrying battery powered cars (EVs), download it here. Each ferry operator must conduct a risk assessment for their vessel to ensure that they are capable of dealing with potential EV fires.”
Lucky Australia – they don’t have a Channel Tunnel to warn as well.
Insurance companies are waking up to the increased risk of vehicle fires – hence the cost of insuring an EV is sky-rocketing. When are Ministers (or their Quangos) going to admit that these vehicles are dangerous?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/10/29/australia-warns-ferries-about-evs/
October 31, 2023
They should be made with simple ‘total disconnect of battery’ function to enable no electricity leakage.
October 31, 2023
When they admit covid vaccines are dangerous to people. Or when they admit they are actively pursuing to dilute Brexit against the public Mande to leave EU. When Sunak admits he caused inflation, increased debt, debt interest and net zero wrecks economy, national security for energy, manufacturing moving jobs east?
October 31, 2023
I query whether quangoes might have been an attempt to introduce professional managers, qualified in and knowledgeable about the services they were required to manage, thereby retiring the “gifted amateaur” approach favoured by the civil service? Many will recall Dr. Cartwright telling Jim Hacker that as an expert in the whole system he himself could not expect further promotion. If quangos are to be reabsorbed under direct Ministerial control, parhaps the entire civil service approach to management selection needs revising?
Where are Ministers with knowledge of the subject to be found? As you will have witnessed, the quality of typical M.P. has eroded with each election and the quality of Minister likewise (as we notice all too clearly from many of the answers from Ministers to your questions that you post here from time to time). Starmer might have made junior Minister in Wilson’s day but would surely never have reached cabinet rank and he (our next prime minister) is the best amongst the offical Oppostion at present.
October 31, 2023
āThere has a growing enthusiasm for so called independent bodies. ā(sic)
āCroneyismā has not been mentioned. Creating cushy jobs for pals is the current racket. If not in quangos, then in public service roles or shoehorned in to The House of Lords.
October 31, 2023
A line I’ve taken for many years.
October 31, 2023
I agree the general direction of your arguement.
You fail to mention that while in the EU it was the CS who formulated policy with the EU. Our Parliament had little influence nor did our government. Hence the electorate saying a pox on your house in 2016, and the battle to this day to restore sovereignty to the UK while the majority in Parliament and the CS fought a rearguard action to ignore the electorate. Hence those institutions being held in contempt by the electorate, and the shambolic state the country is in.
If you wjsh to sort it you must rewrite the CS contract. Then you must attract MPs with talent sufficient to run the officss of state. School, Uni, Gofer, MP is a formula for disaster. Do I think it will ever happen, not while consocialism litters our Parliament.
October 31, 2023
It seems that ministers much prefer to keep at arms length from day to day management of activities, whether it is a quango or the civil service – They need to take back that responsibility and make things work out as they are decided by HMG.
Yes they can, but it will be a different ballgame for ministers who currently get told what is happening by the civil service, instead ministers have to be fully in command, without resistance, while the civil service should do exactly as they are told without modification or personal feelings creeping into results.
Let’s phase in private contractors to start taking over functions from the civil service, while reducing the civil service to manageable number.
As for the quango – Time for that bonfire and for ministers to start earning their perks and pay by taking over their functions in a cost effective manner.
October 31, 2023
Whichever way you organise it there is a requirement to have competent ministers, SPADS & advisers, civil servants, officials and delegated management. As the COVID inquiry is showing we have none of those. So organising things in a different way won’t help. Of course the Covid inquiry itself is also demonstrating this lack of ability.
October 31, 2023
Sir John
āA can of wormsā here this morning, yet it identifies the flaws of the way the management of the UK in recent years has evolved and digressed from all logical reasoning. The UK is said by some, mainly those with power to be a Democracy, but a Democracy requires those in power, those that get to steal money from the Electorate/Taxpayer are at all time answerable to that electorate.
As such independence of someone in receipt of someone elseās money is not part of Democracy, some one has to be higher up the food chain and directly held to account. A Minister with a Parliament on their case at all times.
The EU has tainted the idea of Democracy, there you have unelected, unaccountable Bureaucrats calling the shots. There those that have been elected have to stand to attention and take their orders from these same individualās.
Thatās the bit where the Parliament and its Executive, the Government have lost their way and purpose they have allowed the Collective āBlobā to take charge, for fear of being briefed against. The Government has refused to manage and hold to account those they give our money to, those we havenāt elected and have no responsibility to the People of the UK. They have created their isolated Cabal and no one can now break that down.
October 31, 2023
Your comments reinforce my long held opinion that our once great Country is in a mess! Lack of rigour, discipline, waste, indecision, too many chaotic unaccountable institutions with weak leadership in hoc to liberal Woke ideology. The process of Prime Ministerial appointments is also deeply troubling as time and time again we witness inexperienced ineffective MPās becoming Ministers whilst skilled and experienced colleagues remain on the back benches? And itās clear the bloated Civil Service and NHS urgently need overhaul. We simply cannot continue like this any longer. We need change.
October 31, 2023
So our host appears to be suggesting ‘Back to the Future’ then, a return to how things were say 50 plus years ago, that we should not have all the Agencies which have sprung up in the last 40 or so years, and obviously no more passing the buck to the EEC/EU [1], that enables Ministers to shrug their shoulders and say, nothing to do with me, decisions are/were made independent of UK Government. Many a minister who should have fallen on their sward survived that way.
I totally agree we need more Ministers who know the subject or who have an enthusiasm for it, but I suspect that is mostly a pipe dream, given the predominance of the PPE Grads within the Westminster Village now, politics has become the career, not a vocation leading on from a previous career in the Boardroom or on the shop-floor.
[1] if a retained EU law or directive is defective why hasn’t the Minister repealed it or modified it yet
October 31, 2023
āSo-called āNon-Departmental Public Bodiesā and QUANGOS have roles in the processes of national government, so they need to be controlled by Ministers as Civil Servants.
Presently they operate at armās length, as if out of control.
An organisation already exists to pull Ministers in a different direction for efficiency and correction.
That is known as HMās Opposition.
Unfortunately that malfunctions too.
October 31, 2023
It’s obvious from the long list of senior civil servants who have featured on TV over the past few years that they hold Ministers in contempt and therefore feel free to do almost whatever they want knowing full well that the Minister will take the blame if things go wrong.
October 31, 2023
the CS hold Ministers in contempt, so do many of us. However, we also hold a lot of CS in contempt.
October 31, 2023
Agree with all of that, although the flooding may be more to do with planning auithorities allowing building on flood plains.
Also, the modern culture has shifted from accountability to:
1. Apologising.
2. Different rules for non-conformists.
When the big banks were in the firing line in 2008, some bright spark (aka a stooge, setting this up) said “And they haven’t even apologised”. I didn’t bite – I said to anyone who would listen “We need a whole lot more than a mere apology”. But of course, they all duly apologised – then went on, business as usual with the gullible public now content.
We saw with the defenestration of Johnson, Raab etc (by Labour politicians with the compliance of some Tories on the Marsupial Court) and the reluctance to do nothing on various claims in the SNP and Labour parties on cases of anti-semitism and other issues… there are two sets of rules. One for Brexiteers and right-of-centre types, another for the establishment WEF types.
WEG types do whatever they want and are rarely held accountable, the otehrs… out at the drop of a hat, even on the most trumped up of charges (“bullying” accusations by the civil service being the latest wheeze).
So it’s not only the rules themselves, it is also that politicians are not following any set of rules in any even-handed way. They are making it up as they go along – that is the underlying issue here.
October 31, 2023
The PM is all about deflection, deflection of his duty, deflection of his management responsibilities. To that end he is Rocking Up at Bletchley Park at something he invented the āAI Safety Summitā thus demonstrating he hasnāt a clue what being a UK PM is.
He is being ignored by those with real jobs, real tasks and real democratic responsibilities, they wonāt be there. Does he even know what Ai, the Ai that calls itself Ai really is. Seemingly the PMās project and proposal is to set about protecting those large foreign enterprises that are running large language modelās (LLMās) also called Ai from being competed (being Challenged) against by the smaller more effective operation.
How about running, managing the UK for the people that pay you to do just that ā Rishi?
October 31, 2023
@Ian B
Ai, LLM, is “Machine learning” which means spot the pattern in repetitive tasks and automate it. Wow! Earth shattering. Chat equals AI? If I look at the world’s conversations and ape them mindlessly with zero guarantee that what appears to be stated has any truth in it that’s scary “artificial intelligence”?
Its just a glorified version of a spellchecker, predictive text. It can only respond what is known and has been scraped(published) on the internet.
You can generate algorithms by recording a lot of driving and identifying patterns and behaviour. That doesn’t mean you’re safe or particularly clever letting them drive two ton two hundred horsepower vehicles on the open road unsupervised. Your “driver” has no mind.
Programming is already behaviour driven by algorithms which might appear “intelligent”. If you tell a politician who’s only done PPE at college this is Skynet actually happening, they’ll believe you.
The above has been plagiarised just as the result from Ai are
October 31, 2023
love it – hilarious. Get rid of all the computers they are probably preparing to wipe all humans out.
October 31, 2023
You say āThe Bank of England gained control of interest rates and money policy. The Environmental Agency set policy on water and flooding. NHS England gained more control over health budgets and management. The vast HS2 project was run by an independent highly paid team of managers.ā
Indeed and all made an appalling mess of these jobs.
The moves to give more huge & unaccountable powers to the WHO are appalling especially after they made a complete mess on Covid even trying to cover up the (now virtually certain) lab leak origins. Like the UK government they got this wrong, masks wrong, lockdowns wrong, the net harm vaccines especially for the young and those who had had covid already wrongā¦ they and the government caused far more harm than if they had done nothing. Plus the problem was caused in a lad in the first place.
October 31, 2023
You say āA Minister like Nick Gibb was allowed to work in Education where he was a great advocate of synthetic phonics to improve reading abilities. More importantly he was allowed long enough there to make a big difference and see the results of his approach come through with better literacy scores.ā The is so little logic in so many english spellings you just have to learn and remembers them irrational as so many are. There is not reason or point in having totally different spellings for words that sound the same but mean different things. The meaning is almost always very clear when spoken so why is it needed when written.
Changing spellings to be more rational and phonetic (spellings like ghost, rite, wright, right, yacht, necessaryā¦ which have irrationally been fixed in aspic since dictionaries arrived) would make a far large improvement instantly. Or at least allowing both spellings and evolution of spellings.
Why not use a soft C, a hard C āKā and a S consistently, why even have āckā. Why have a Y and and I? Why bother to always have a āuā after a āqā? Why use double letters totally inconsistently?
If however you put some one in charge of say energy or transport who know some science and was rational like say Lords Lilley or Ridley then the whole totally irrational net zero policy would have to be ditched so they put compliant, scientifically ignorant fools in charge instead.
October 31, 2023
I’m sorry to have to say that that is totally and utterly wrong.
The spoken language is ambiguous, the written language is not. That is a simple fact and the changes you suggest would make the written language instantly ambiguous.
One cannot hear the difference between bear and bare, or right and rite, but we can see them when written correctly – and they are important.
October 31, 2023
So why is it important when itās written yet not important to distinguish when spoken? No confusion arrises in the spoken word (unless you take a few very contrived out of context examples).
October 31, 2023
Transport –
Marples rode a bike, never passed a driving test.
London Mayor. – dad a bus driver (good?) reverses the tax advantage our dear G.Brown put in for diesels.
Slowed the London economy with 20mph.
Penalises perfectly reasonable petrol engines for very expensive EVs.
October 31, 2023
Luckily we have 650 PMs to decide upon our transport matters and 1000 Peers to review their pathetic laws ā¦hatters & mad house springs to mind
November 1, 2023
Barbara Castle another transport Sec who could not drive. I rather mistrust such people. Still Sturgeon has now finally passed her test a few days back. Michael Gove had to take his test 7 times to pass. Does not inspire confidence but how can be be so daft as to want VAT on Private School fees like Starmer. What is really needed is tax breaks for those who pay for themselves same with the NHS. They pay three or four times over already. Free and fair competition please not a rigged state only system.
October 31, 2023
Start sacking civil servants, and then hire some new ones, recruited from the English populatiion who have never been to university or private school.
Do the same in the Police forces, and ensure that superintendants and chief constables, are all proper thief takers and have never been to university.
October 31, 2023
MWB – Sacking ????? you will arrested for that utterance. Incompetence pays in this day and age, Follw the money – EVERYWHERE.
October 31, 2023
All depts should have an enforced 10% cut in staffing, preferably by the least able via performance reviews.
Naturally that might lead to perhaps 1 or 2 % new recruits rather unavoidable.
Then the following year do the same again – 10% cut – I bet performance would be improving by then.
October 31, 2023
Ad Dominic Cummings said to – if you suggest/request that a civil servant gets sacked, they just get promoted out of office
October 31, 2023
Firstly the Government must be in control otherwise democracy means nothing ; as it stands this is not the case . Equally the competence and background knowledge and experience of Ministers has to be of the best ; at the moment I do not believe this is true . The PM is ultimately in charge and how he selects his Cabinet is critical . The Civil Service has to react to the policy and demands of its leadership – they are not the deciders although they do provide influence . There is mayhem at the moment ; Sunak has the native intelligence but is short on experience . What happens next ? . Sir John ought to feature now in the front of the necessary overhaul process .
October 31, 2023
The reason our elected politicians give powers to unelected EU bureacrats, civil servants, quangos and āindependentā bodies is two fold :
Firstly they can stuff these organisations with unelected and unaccountable woke (communist) people instructed to carry out policies of which they approve but dare not admit to the electorate. The politicians even use taxpayer money to fund organisations to take them to court to prevent popular policies reaching the statute book, as recently seen for both immigration and Net Zero.
Secondly, the politicians can then garner votes at election time saying they will āsave usā from the policies of these unelected bodies. Again, āreducing immigration to the tens of thousandsā and āmoving back Net Zeroā are primary electioneering targets which are not intended to be implemented once elected.
October 31, 2023
OR- Spot on. It is jobs for the boys and has been now for many many years. Ask yourself how many MPs truly care bout their constituents. Look at the HoC during debate time. Mostly are career politicians. Similar with the HoL.
October 31, 2023
‘Some things done by quangos would be better done directly by the sponsor government department, cutting overheads.’
Councils outsource to the local voluntary/community sector.āThis saves public-sector pensions and potentially gives the work to those who care more.āBut I do wonder how much part-time parallel management remains in the council to oversee the work.āPlus the VCS still lacks the profit signal from beneficiaries unlike the friendly societies which the state provision of welfare replaced.
A failing quango does not protect its minister from the voter.āSurely MPs know that by now.āBut does a surfeit of quangos benefit MPs by offering employment when voted out?
October 31, 2023
‘oversee the work’ Oh Ralph you gave me a much needed laugh this evening.
October 31, 2023
Sir JR, you might also care to consider in your list of quango examples the role of the DVSA (formerly VOSA) in relation to their handling of compulsory driver training and the current significant shortage of lorry and bus drivers in the UK.
October 31, 2023
The civil service and many quangoes have effectively performed a coup. They will not give up power easily.
I doubt this will come to a head until a decent government comes into power.
When that happens we will see where the armed forces and police stand on this matter, for ultimately they will need to decide which side wins.
October 31, 2023
Very good Sir John but we can’t do it you have to, sort out root and branch the CS and stop this ‘tail wagging dog’ nonsense. Whatever happened to that bonfire of the quangos we were promised?
October 31, 2023
The decline in effective ministerial power began with the fall of Mrs Thatcher. With each new Government, the Mandarins seemed to take more policy decisions with none of the responsibilites as none have been properly sacked for messing up. Their ‘punishment’ is a move sideways or a bright Golden Handshake and pension to match.
A succession of pro-EU PMs followed the Iron Lady, encouraged and ably supported by their own civil service europohile staff.
These home grown government aides had their eyes on the power the EU Civil Service had over most of the Continent and wished to retain their status here, ad infinitum. So they took steps to prevent any Leave campaign gaining momentum. In 2016, the then Europhile PM, Cameron, most probably with their help, produced a EU promotional leaflet to convince us that EU membership was best for this Nation. It cost Ā£9 M of tax payers money to produce and mail out but that priviledge was not offered to the Leavers to print and distibute their own pro-Independence fact sheet! A smell of sharp practice?
I do not know if and when ‘fings’ will change in Downing Street but it is clear OUR country needs a proper leader again who will actually take charge of those who think they should run the country.
To truly represent the citizens of this country, our leader and his/her Cabinet must have had the experrience of being “out there” lest they cannot truly represent us. I live in hope.
October 31, 2023
When we see Ministers sacking the incompetent in the vastly over manned Civil Service and in Quangos, I will believe we have effective Ministers. But look at Dominic Raab, a Minister who set standards and demanded work was done. He got accused of bullying Civil Servants and left office. So which Minister is strong enough to stand up to his or her Civil servants and insist they do their job? None that I can see in the present government.
October 31, 2023
From the MsM, reporting on the ongoing inquiry, which is technically off topic to todayās Diary, but nevertheless it sums up the situation on how this Conservative Government allows the UK to be managed on our behalf – rather that step up to the job themselves.
“a lot of the wrong people in the wrong job” in the Cabinet Office as he described a culture of “constantly classifying everything to hide mistakes”.
The Cabinet Office over a long period of time has accumulated more and more power, formal and informal.
“It’s become incredibly bloated. It’s acquired huge numbers of people, huge numbers of teams. And particularly on the whole, the sort of deep state, national security side, crisis management, has become in all sorts of ways extremely opaque and effectively completely invisible to any political figure, including the prime minister.
“So it was extremely difficult to know in Number 10 who exactly in the Cabinet Office was doing what, whose responsibility it was, who were we supposed to talk to to get action and that was critical.
Who pays? The Taxpayer. Who is responsible for controlling cost and getting a return on expenditure ā our 2 Chancellors, but they have gone AWOL.
October 31, 2023
Todayās inquiry has highlighted the Boris governments faults & mistakes on convid, especially noted was the involvement of civil servants to āpop-inā and change the PMs decision.
Could this be, perhaps, the same with net-zero & wind-farms
October 31, 2023
The big bullshiter out bullshitted by the last visitor he had?
A salesman’s delight.
October 31, 2023
Boris was right on not wanting to lockdown but gave in alas and he was right on the lunacy of climate alarmism until he went off the rails with the deluded Theatre Studies lass Carrie.
November 1, 2023
are you suggesting that he was a ‘weak’ PM
November 1, 2023
I suggest he was/is hopelessly inadequate to make any decisions. No manager, no leader, no principles, easily lost in any argument, obsessed with image, his sex-life, defender of shockingly hopeless staff if they had supported him at some point. Well suited for old- boys private school reunions – that’s about it.
October 31, 2023
We now have the very worst of all worlds : Quangoes like NHS England running the NHS but then there are the happless ministers who everyone blames when anything goes wrong. I would like to see just one head of a quango sacked for a big mistake, to encourage the others, but it never happens !
I cannot understand why a strong minister like Suella and Priti Patel before her have not been able to get to grips with the Home Office and get it to implement Government policy. The same seems to apply to other ministries such as the disaster that is the MOD ( Procurement ) and the FCO ( Foreign Aid ).
Then we have Rwanda. This is most definitey government policy but Sunak is allowing the Supreme Court to decide on what he can do. Surely a simple bill outlining that it must be implemented is all that is necessary, if we are to believe that Parliament is indeed sovereign.
October 31, 2023
Tory MP Harriett Baldwin, chair of the parliamentary Treasury select committee accused the big four banks of ādoing as little as they can get away withā to reward savers. She said Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest Group and HSBC were not doing enough to pass on higher interest rates to savers. Could someone please tell her that high street banks have loads of cash and don’t need to raise depositors interest rates to get any more.
Keep in mind that when you make a deposit in a Bank, your deposit becomes an asset on the Bank’s Balance Sheet. If the Bank goes bust your deposit goes bust along with shareholders equity. That is why the government insures your deposit up to Ā£85,000 per regulated Bank.
October 31, 2023
Eh? I thought banks required deposits to prove liquidity to the BoE. If too many depositors leave for higher interest savings accounts such as those offered by the online banks then doesnāt the big bank risk its stability and ability to borrow money out to make their profit?
October 31, 2023
@ acorn <i."Keep in mind that when you make a deposit in a Bank, your deposit becomes an asset on the Bankās Balance Sheet” – it is still your asset but a bank will record it as its liability on its balance sheet, recognizing its obligation to make repayment when same becomes due.
October 31, 2023
It revelations about Johnson today prove beyond all doubt that our political system is not fit for purpose. How on earth did he become PM?
November 1, 2023
What specific revelation, Mike?
November 1, 2023
has anybody said BJ was a good PM? OR rather the reverse?
November 1, 2023
Well, a-tracy,
that Johnson took a two weeks holiday in Febā20 when there had been warnings coming from the East since the end of Decemberā19,
that he missed the first five Cobra meetings on Covid,
that he didnāt check that what Hancock was saying about Britain being the second best prepared country was right or not, and that the ācoronavirus action planā was just a PR exercise,
that he didnāt close the borders when it became clear that most contagion was coming from people returning from abroad,
that he appeared unable to stick to anything that had been decided and was able to change his mind after the last person at the end of the day had talked to him,
that it took ten days between the first lockdown decision had been taken (16/03/2020) and its actual application (26/03/2020),
that he was happy for āCovid to be Natureās way of dealing with old peopleā,
that he went along with the Ā£850 m Sunakās āEat Out to Help Outā scheme,
ā¦
do you really need more?
instituteforgovernment.org.uk, and various reports on these last two days of inquiry.
November 2, 2023
Well, Hefner, it’s interesting that you answered for Mike.
1. Do you believe Prime Ministers shouldn’t get any holidays because we pretty much have problems all year round? He had just one an all-out general election campaign. Do you know for a fact he wasn’t working at all or keeping in touch with the full team during that break? The warnings from the East were being played down at the time by WHO.
2. Delegation, do you think it is important that high-level team members are trusted to get on with their area or do you believe the PM must stay and micro-manage everything themselves? Do you think his seniors in the meeting weren’t reporting things back to him with sufficient urgency and explanation that he felt relaxed they were handling it? Gove said, “most cobra meetings don’t have the prime minister attending them, that’s the whole point, that they are led by the relevant secretary of state in the relevant area. Whoever is chairing those meetings reports to the prime minister,” the first five meetings from January the WHO didn’t list covid as a crisis.
3. I wouldn’t have appointed Hancock, Boris did, I would struggle to defend Hancock, I criticised him and his handling of covid from the start.
4. Wasn’t Boris told it wouldn’t have made a difference if he did? Weren’t leaders closing down airports being accused of being Trumplike and racist? I seem to recall they were and people were crying out for that not to happen here in the UK. Personally, I felt all ports, airports everything should have shut for a circuit breaker and people tested before being allowed onto planes.
5. One of the things I most criticise my Managers for is sticking by their original plans even if they are going t*ts up and a change would have made a big difference to the end result. Rigidity can be as damaging as flexibility it is easy to look back in hindsight hefner, no?
6. He was trying to get to the Easter break and school closedown to not affect children’s learning, he advised people to restrict mixing, I remember the early reports in the papers and didn’t visit my parents from the start of March from those warnings but I worked throughout, didn’t get one day off.
7. I think ‘happy’ is the wrong word.
8. There were lots of restaurants very, very grateful for that scheme. There was social distancing at the tables, the servers wore masks, people couldn’t walk around without masks on, no more than was it six allowed to meet, people were doing covid tests then the free white test kits.
The indirect effect of too severe a lockdown are just as bad with many over 50 year olds suffering from cognitive decline, loneliness, depression, a drop in exercise, higher alcohol consumption, domestic violence increases, (according to the Lancet not me). Thats before we get on to the destruction of our economy, long loans, and lots of other repercussions that are coming to light now from massive waiting lists for treatments, untreated cancer patients, and increased stroke and heart problems.
October 31, 2023
JR clearly does not know how cabinet appointments are made: roles are awarded according to the MP’s position in the pecking order and the perceived importance of his department of state.
Practically none of the MPs actually know anything about anything useful. By this means no MP starts out with an unfair advantage over his colleagues.
November 1, 2023
I read some of a ‘senior civil servants’ testimony today and I just thought these people call themselves senior managers?! They wouldn’t last five minutes in the small private business sector. “Its everyone else’s fault but mine gov’nor”.
Ms MacNamara, who received a fine for breaching Covid rules, also claimed āhundredsā of civil servants and āpotentially ministersā could have been liable to penalties for being on the āwrong sideā of the law.
āI would find it hard to pick one day when the regulations were followed properly inside that building,ā she told the Covid Inquiry in reference to the Cabinet Office and No 10.
āI know that because…. there was one meeting where we absolutely adhered to the guidance, to the letter, and that was the cabinet meeting, and everybody moaned about it and tried to change it repeatedly.
āSo I know how exceptional it was to really, really, really properly follow the guidance.ā
Is she a SENIOR MANAGER or not? So what if people got a bit shirty being told to follow the rules they were writing, it was her job to ensure the staff in there did follow rules. The buck-passing is ridiculous how much was she on per year?