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
Keeping waiting lists lower than they really are is done in several cynical ways..surgery gate keepers make ‘seeing’ a GP as hard as possible, a telephone call is not likely to result in a referrral as seriousness does not travel well over the transmission. Once a date for investigation is finally achieved appointments will later be cancelled if cancer is unlikely from the notes. A fresh date is not provided until complaints are received. Other reductions arise from ‘staff shortages, theatre equipment issues, staff illness etc’.
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?
February 26, 2026
Prob. Related to EU Bathing Water Directives.
Lifting daft expensive limits is often very sensible. Let’s start with the lunacy of net zero targets, fracking was killed by absurdly restrictive “earth quake” restrictions which were more restrictive than could be caused by a passing truck. Especially given all the pot holes they fail to fix.
Mogg yesterday claimed Kemi was scrapping net zero is she really? And what do all her MPs who nodded May’s lunacy through without even a vote think of this?
Reply Yes, please try to keep up. The Conservative party led by Kemi and Claire Couthino have set out a new policy of going for cheaper energy including fossil fuels. The party is fully behind this, and agrees with what I and others have written about the huge damage being done to UK industry and jobs by government high energy prices with carbon taxes.
February 26, 2026
The problem with the NHS is that government has had to fund health services for an additional ~10 million people since 2000. Of course, waiting lists have increased accordingly
The UK population has increased by over 10 million since 2000, rising from ~59 million in 2000 to an estimated 69 million by 2025. This growth, primarily driven by high net international migration (the “Boriswave”) and to a lesser extent natural change (births minus deaths), has been relatively consistent – with rapid increases in the 2000s and 2010s
Access to our free healthcare is a major driver for the boat people and other economic migrants
The population is projected to continue growing, with forecasts suggesting it will surpass 70 million by 2029 (Source; ONS)
February 26, 2026
the targets in the NHS just lead to corruption and fake figures. the only real way to fix things is to hand buying power over to individual citizens.
February 26, 2026
NHS targets could be improved if health trusts were no longer required to include lifestyle diseases in their figures. They would then steer resources towards genuine health conditions, leaving those with lifestyle diseases resorting to private healthcare in desperation.
Next step formally remove the obligation of the NHS to treat lifestyle diseases.
February 26, 2026
Beating the competition is the best form of target. It provides a real measure as well
February 26, 2026
I wonder what the U-Turn target is? They seem to be doing quite well with them.
February 26, 2026
The government seems to have a socialist/communist mind set. Therefore nothing they do will perfect success, only more debt and costs to the alarm clock electorate. They are not honest brokers at all.
Looking at how quickly they’ve jumped on Misley Mandarin and the other three Chaggosians , it begs the question as to why they can’t act that swiftly with the Kent coast daily invasion!
February 26, 2026
It is worth pointing out targets are simply ambitions, they are not policy statements with any meaningful data to support them. Targets are put out to sound as though something is being done.
The government came into office saying they will build 1.5 million new homes in their five year period to resolve the housing shortage.
There are just two things wrong with that.
1. building 300,000 houses/year will not resolve the housing needs of an ever expanding population.
2. In the period already in office the rate of house building has declined to a new low.
There is no chance the government can build what they set out as a ‘target’ unless they change the rules of measuring. Instead of new houses they will change their metric to ‘new accommodation’. Once they do that they will count houses of multiple occupancy as an achievement.
The scheming that goes on is a disgrace but what else do we expect from the likes of a Labour administration?
February 26, 2026
Very valid comments – this government is going nowhere fast.
Since the new year I’ve noticed a deeper professionalism to these posts – our host has never been unprofessional, but now his posts come with a fresh breath, with precise detail and specifics even clearer.
I wish I had the stamina this lord.