I am often asked who influenced my ideas. I reply that my views on the economy and public policy have come from my experience in a wide range of jobs, from my many conversations with voters, and from my own reflections on what works best in the world around us.
If pressed I concede I read a lot of books in my youth that had little or no impact on me. I struggle to remember what they said. The one book that had a big impact was Marx’s Communist Party Manifesto which made me write rebuttals and publish the Popular Capitalism Manifesto alternative. The one book I read whose message impressed itself upon me was Parkinson’s Law. It is a great satire, but is also a documentary of the worst failings of our ever growing and sprawling public sector.
Parkinson explained how and why civil service bureaucracy expanded without delivering more service or useful output. He showed how the Admiralty officials grew from 2000 to 3569 between 1914 and 1928 when the number of capital ships fell from 62 to 20. The officials reached 33,788 by 1954!
More modern versions of this analysis have shown how in more recent years there has been a big increase in senior naval officers against a background of fewer fighting ships. 2 aircraft carriers, 7 frigates, 6 destroyers and nine submarines are directed by 134 Admirals and Flag officers and 260 Captains. The individual ships are mainly taken to sea by Commanders. Captains are too grand to command frigates and destroyers.
The navy is unfairly picked on for a phenomenon which grips most departments and services. Most have far too many senior managers but are badly managed. Managers make work for each other and place strains on those doing useful work to run a necessary service by demanding all sorts of internal information and policies.
It is high time UK government tackled the waste and poor management that its ever expanding bureaucracy causes.It is bizarre that the navy has money to pay 394 senior officers but was unable to send a single destroyer to defend Cyprus on time.
March 16, 2026
Good morning.
But who is responsible for administrating all of this ?
Perhaps it would be a good idea to place a peace time cap on all military positions and, ant that are over or above additional taxes can be placed upon them to encourage them to leave and find better jobs elsewhere.
March 16, 2026
Stick close to your desks and never go to sea,
And you all may be rulers of the Queen’s navee,
Scholar up on matters of diversitee
Scholar up on matters of equalitee,
Etc. Etc
Or for the army (or politics) :-
I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
I avoid all matters associated with degrees called PPE
And now I am the leader of the Queens armee
Yes, now I am charge of matters parliamentary
March 16, 2026
As I said the other day the National Security Council (United Kingdom) is Chaired by Two Tier and has five lawyers two PPE graduates and the Defence Secretary John Healey (social and political science Cantab). Do they know anything relevant to war and war technology? God help us. I see that our appalling PM is even refusing to send even a single ship to help keep the Straits of Hormuz flowing.
Far more concerned with his appalling anti-free speech Islamophobia agenda and killing jury trial so single agents of the state can rule instead! Would we think a jury of just one was a good plan? A single judge with an eye on promotion is even worse.
March 16, 2026
The never ending growth of the public sector is reflected in too many examples of huge growth in staff numbers and payments to senior managers/officers, The tiny scale of our navy yet the massive cost to manage it being just one example.
When we try to drive on our roads, the scale of the pubic sector incompetence is reflected in the broken roads riddles with damaging pot holes yet the number of personnel in the public sector grew by hundreds of thousands/year. While the number of state funded employees increased the number of vehicles broken by the appalling state of the roads doubled last year according to the AA/RAC reports.
The more we pay the worse it gets.
It is time for the government to introduce Net Zero recruitment in the public sector, maybe a ‘one in one out’ policy, they like those sort of policies apparently.
March 16, 2026
Indeed and with potholes “a stitch in time saves nine” (often even more) is true. Not only the nine but also all the damage to vehicles, the injured and dead cyclists and motor cyclists, delayed journeys… a small pothole rapidly grows as each vehicle crashes into it, plus the freeze and thaw effects. Even worse with far heavier battery vehicles that Miliband is insanely ramming down people’s throats using their taxes to bribe them.
March 16, 2026
In a clear admission that the USA has bitten off more than it can chew by starting the Iran war, the megalomaniac in the White House is now threatening NATO with “a very bad future”
Unless America’s allies put their sailors and warships in harms way – instead of US Navy ships – when it is apparent to everybody that the IRGC still controls the Strait of Hormuz
30% of the worlds fossil fuels travelled through the Strait before the war – which equates to hundreds of tankers
Trump’s latest treats to the NATO alliance follow on from yet another grovelling telecon with the war criminal Putin. It’s past time that America’s allies and the American people address the hold that Putin has over Trump.
March 16, 2026
Well let us hope Trump has not taken on too much. We shall see. It will not be easy, but I am reasonable optimistic. Appalling deluded people like Starmer and no drilling/fracking Miliband will not help!
March 16, 2026
I have been posting here for years about the humungous waste of taxpayer’s money that is the bottomless pit of the MoD
They suffer no consequences as a result of the stupendous cock-ups that their procurement system inflicts on the British taxpayer and until someone grasps the nettle and inflicts root and branch change, nothing will be different
We also have a similar surfeit of Generals in the Army and Air Vice Marshals in the RAF. But it’s OK! – they can all speak Latin
March 16, 2026
The Navy perfectly describes every government departments. The NHS being the worst. Until we get away from. Uniparty rule and have a party willing to do a root and branch clear out, nothing will change.
I volunteer at my local hospital and the waste is criminal both in manpower and materials, there are 250 of us in the Trust and probably do more useful work than many of the hundreds of admin staff.
March 16, 2026
IW,
Political patronage( via overpaid roles as heads of NHS trusts etc) plus unchallenged empire building from within. No concern whatsoever about cost, or the relevance of every post to public health.
NHS started out as a fairly lean organisation. No such thing as health tourism in those days either.
March 16, 2026
we should have more of some key roles than makes sense in peacetime, in order to be able to support a far larger force made up of mostly new entrants in the event of major war.
also long term military mostly get a posting to wind down their last 2 years in the military, during which they can prepare for return to civvy street, and they are generally not fully contributing to the military during that time. they often get extended training time, and secondments to study at university or with foreign military, during which they are not really contributing to the military here.
so some over capacity is needed, but not as much as we have.
the royal artillery is funnier with only about 80 actual artillery peices available to the army, of which many are tiny, yet lots more senior officers.
we should stop so many senior officers taking roles in the MOD for which they are completely unqualified and unsuitable for, that is a large part of why so many MOD programmes are failures.
March 16, 2026
The Navy doesn’t have the money to pay 394 senior officers. Neither does the Government. It’s all borrowed …. and it’s far more important to throw money at:
Mauritius
Criminal Migrants / HR Lawyers / Migrant “charities”
“Our wonderful NHS”
Legions of “anxious” welfare claimants who are swinging the lead / Motability etc
The Net Zero insanity
Ukraine (not our war)
The EU (we’re supposed to have left)
The thousands of DEI “managers” in the Civil Service
Anything really, except for the primary responsibility of every Government – defence of the Realm.
March 16, 2026
a large part of the problem with the military and civil service is that they get promoted by not rocking the boat, for compliance with prevailing fashions. anyone who innovates, produces unusual excellence, who shakes things up, they are inevitably treated like a foreign body and the immune system kicks them out.
March 16, 2026
Kaftan describes the effects bureaucracy has on any services it seeks to perform.
March 16, 2026
Kafka!!!!?
March 16, 2026
This ‘top heavy’ management is just a reflection of our civil service, government and parliament
March 16, 2026
This is unsurprising, old news – doubtless promotion is dependent on staying schtumm. Governments of all stripes have allowed bloat in our civil services and the number of senior roles, even ministerial posts. Many of us feel, when we pay taxes, that we are just pouring gasoline on the fire to a state that actively dislikes us and which is seeking our ruin. Do you wonder at the fury at 14 years of inactivity by a nominally Conservative government?
March 16, 2026
To add my two penneth, SJ, during my sea time in the 20th century, there were five civilians working within the Naval command structure to put one single sailor to sea. I dread to think what today’s ratio might be.
Obviously, there has to be civilian support behind all services, but why don’t they employ experienced ex-service personnel for those respective jobs? Especially those who may have left before they were due any service pension. Or haven’t they been to the “right” schools?
March 16, 2026
I remember as a young man training a group of foreign men to use a tractor and plough. Part of a government program financed by the foreign aid budget. Notwithstanding their lack of interest they were sure that upon return to their home they would be managers not ploughmen. Sixty years on and Sir John’s comments are evident in all aspects of public service. Nothing changes
March 16, 2026
It doesn’t need 260 four stripe Captains to command 24 ships even on rotation. A two stripe Lieutenant, is placed below a Lieutenant-Commander, a Captain or Commander but can still command, as in be the captain of a ship.
Lets all be honest, the real situation/problem as an island nation reliant on see trade for survival, the empty slot is we don’t have the ships in numbers to protect our supply life lines.