Governments like setting themselves targets to give people a sense of direction and to demonstrate progress. This government is particularly keen on them. The art of good target setting is
1. Identify a real problem where more effort and resource can improve things
2, Set a stretching but achievable target
3. Put in the extra resource and leadership
4. Get public service buy in to success by showing how the target is being met and is popular with the public.
This government is finding it difficult to meet its key targets or even get us going in the same direction as the target.
The target to smash the gangs has never been in sight as numbers arriving increased under the new government. Their policy actually ditched changes the last government had made but had not fully implemented which would have brought down illegal migration faster than it was falling when Labour took over.
The target to build 1.5 million new homes is never going to be met this Parliament, and the policy of speeding planning permissions did not tackle the main reasons for poor housebuilding numbers. Taxing the economy into slowdown did not help.
The target to take £300 off people’s energy bills was not going to be hit because more renewables which the government keeps adding are dearer. Getting a modest reduction in bills next quarter by shifting some of the costs onto general taxation is a fiddle, not a win. We still have to pay dearer bills but some of it is taken out of increased taxes.
The target to cut NHS waiting lists has led to some reductions mainly by removing the dead, the recovered, the double counted from the lists, not by more throughput and treatment of patients. Whilst it makes sense to get more accurate lists it is not what was implied by a target to reduce waiting. People are still waiting too long who need treatment and there are still too few treatments and consultations.
The education target seeks to reduce the gap between the best and worst performing children. Surely the target we want is one to raise the performance and opportunities of those who are not doing well. This government’s target could be advanced by cutting resources and effort to teach those who are doing well to bring their achievement down to closer to the average. This would not be a good outcome.
February 26, 2026
Good morning.
All Socialists are. Tractor production anyone.
Targets to a Socialist is a form of justification when, on rare occasions, they are met. It is a; “See ! Socialism really does work.” And when they are not met there is usually some excuse.
The best governments are the ones where there are no targets. That is because they are leaving things to themselves. But they have to be seen to be doing something or why all those people in Number 10, the Civil Service, QUANGO’s and both Houses of Parliament doing ? Truth is, we do not need them. Well, ‘most’ of them.
Less is more.
February 26, 2026
One target we can’t criticise is this governments haste at giving away assets. Chagos is still on the agenda.
Gibraltar is being actively transferred to Spain/EU without even parliament oversight.
Our fish have been given to the EU indefinitely and the ruinous Net Stupid targets are being pursued with vigour.
Agenda 30 would seem well on track.
February 26, 2026
The NHS spend loads of money and misdirect funds not to actually treat people on waiting lists but to fiddle these waiting lists and to pretend they are getting better for political reasons. Other departments do the same. Waiting list for waiting lists or you cannot go on this list until your other condition is dealt with or have had other tests which might take 12 months…
February 26, 2026
Targets set by governments have a bad history, they are often worse than manifesto promises. Worse, because the government and/or the institution dealing with the issue often wangles the figures to make it appear something is improving, or at least not worsening as fast as before.
I remember even in Mrs T’s administration a variation of this tactic was used when water pollution limits of some kind weren’t being met: she just raised the limits. Magically her government had curtailed any breaches.
So, all governments get up to shenanigans. Our current leaders are just worse. There’s been the general slide in honesty and competence over the years, socialism favours command by targets, and this lot are exceptionally useless at managing the public sector.
Reply I do not recall the alleged water incident. Can you clarify?