The ONS put the loss of productivity at 6.5% 2020 to 2023. The Treasury say we lost Ā£20 bn that way. It looks more like Ā£30 bn.
How did it happen? There was of course a loss of productivity in schools when they were shut for Covid, but that bounced back when lockdowns ended. There was a loss of output in the NHS when many dedicated staff worked hard and at risk fighting Covid but other NHS activities were paused or reduced to avoid cross infection. That too bounced back.
What stayed was the Ā large recruitment of extra Ā civil servants and public sector administrators across many departments and public bodies. No resource was spared in fighting the pandemic, but normal business did not resume thereafter. Civil service numbers rose from 445,480 in 2019 to 519,780 by 2023, an increase of 74,300 or 17%. Total public administration numbers rose by a fifth to 1.2 million.
I tried to get the government to slim administration back down to 2019 levels by imposing a recruitment freeze on new employees from outside the public sector. That way no one would be sacked, and employees would gain more promotion opportunities. Every time someone left to retire or take a job elsewhere the management would decide whether they could eliminate that post, or promote someone into it whilst eliminating theirs. they could be guided by the staffing numbers and organisation chart for 2019 in where they were trying to get to, adjusted to any changed priorities. Only a few Ministers insisted on this. The government as a whole was persuaded to try to do one in one out, which of course does not restore lost productivity. I expect the new government will drop any idea of trying to get back up to 2019 levels of achievement.
Many large government functions like welfare benefits and grant allocation can be done with fewer people and more use of the many computers the state owns. Why isnāt this happening?
August 30, 2024
Good morning.
What I would like to know is, what are all these ‘non-frontline’ Public Sector workers doing ? I ask this as, everytime I have to deal with Companies House, HMRC and DWP I have to interface these government bureaucracies via a web-portal. No human needed. In fact, why are we not pushing AI to replace these jobs ?
It is obvious that empires are being built and government legislation has something to do with it, such as recruiting numerous Diversity Officers etc. But I do not interface with these people and, on the rare occasions that I have to, in fact need to, talk to a real human, it take bloody hours !
A private company would seek to automate as much as possible. We see this on the high street where supermarkets and restaurants have self service. We see this in banking apps on our smartphones. We see this at large retail units where companies like Amazon and Orcado use robots etc.
So again I say – What are they all doing ?
August 30, 2024
They’re all frightfully busy attending Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity lectures, workshops, away-days and informal get-togethers. We have a socialist dogma driven government. Achievement and efficiency is frowned upon if not actually punished. I am reminded of that scene in Metropolis of the ‘Shift Change’. That’s where we going under Starmer.
August 30, 2024
JR,
Guido highlights it costs Ā£8.5 billion in welfare for 1.6 million migrants on benefits. Is this on top of the Ā£7-8 billion for housing illegal criminals from France? Nearly Ā£16 billion a year for these people shows mass immigration policy does not work at all for economic reasons before ridding us of our nation state, culture and way of life.
Detention centres for said illegal immigrants would not cost this amount. Cheaper if deportation was an option!
Both Tory and Labour Uni party are an absolute disgrace.
August 30, 2024
Guido points out the new GB Enrgy Company- that does not produce energy- has advertised jobs with a work from built in!! Lazy Labour does not care how it wastes our taxes. TwoTier Keir Stasi falsely claims his is a govt of service!! The lies roll off his tongue on a nearly daily basis. Bit it is All our fault he is the law! Watch what you say and think he will tax it or make it illegal! You will be miserable like him and enjoy it! Off to the gulag with you.
August 30, 2024
Mark B
Probably spending much time sending, receiving, and reading e mails sent to each other in order to cover their backsides, because no one person now wants to make any sort of a decision without consultation with many other like minded people.
Happens in Local Authorities as well.
The more people in the loop, the less productive they all become.
August 30, 2024
State sector productivity – unfortunately most of what the state does is entirely negative anyway – how many roads did you block today, how much pointless red tape did you enforce, how much did you push up energy costs and intermittency due to the net zero lunacy, how much did you waste on HS2, how many Ā£50k student āloansā were given to students to give them virtually worthless degreesā¦
The recent Sceptic Postcast details perfetly how virtually no one in the energy department or the committee for climate change or the senior civil service in energy has any relevant degrees. The whole energy agenda and net zero agenda is bonkers. Robert Jenrick and all the would be Tory Party leaders are totall wrong headed on this. There is no CO2 caused climate emergency and even if there were, the renewables agenda is insane and hugely net harmful. Generally it is just exporting CO2 production.
August 30, 2024
Spot on LL. Even worse than bonkers, it is an economy destroying scam.
No wind today. I have yet to look at grid watch to see how much we are importing from France, Norway etc.
August 30, 2024
We are only Importing around 10% in total today because the majority of Europe is under high pressure and there is no wind
Consequently 60% of our electricity is coming from CCGT and nuclear. Our last remaining coal station has shutdown. It doesn’t bode very well for similar circumstances in winter
August 30, 2024
JOHN CLAUSER, 2022 PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE WINNER:
“I can very confidently assert, there is NO climate emergency.”
āAs much as it may upset many people, my message is the planet is NOT in peril. ā¦ atmospheric CO2 and methane have negligible effect on the climate.
Indeed and furthermore the mad economically insane things we are doing to reduce manmade CO2 does not even do that – to any sig. effect – they often just export industries and increase CO2. EV cars most certainly increase CO2 as does burning imported wood (young coal) at Drax.
August 30, 2024
Ouch….will the WEF seek to shut down the Nobel Prize awards, not doing much good for their insane policies!
August 30, 2024
John Clauser has been cancelled. Serves him right; ‘the science’ is there to support the politics, not to contradict it.
August 31, 2024
It’s noticeable that the argument which they are now starting to use for “renewables” is so we don’t buy fossil fuels “from dictators like Putin.”
The wheels are coming off the man-made climate change bandwagon now some of the media (ie GB News and TalkTV) are pushing back …. so the narrative is changing.
August 30, 2024
This government and the last shower remain without vision, crawling in the shadows, covered in thick dust, still falling unsettled from the last collapse.
August 30, 2024
The Climate Change Scam and Net Zero scam has nothing to do with the climate ….. it is about redistributing the world’s wealth. And that’s not my opinion, it what the UN has admitted:
“Ottmar Edenhofer, lead author of the IPCCās fourth summary report released in 2007 candidly expressed the priority. Speaking in 2010, he advised, āOne has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the worldās wealth.ā
Or, as U.N. climate chief Christina Figueres pointedly remarked, the true aim of the U.N.ās 2014 Paris climate conference was āto change the [capitalist] economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.ā
https://www.climatedepot.com/2017/05/24/global-warming-is-not-about-the-science-un-admits-climate-change-policy-is-about-how-we-redistribute-the-worlds-wealth/
August 30, 2024
A good interview by Mogg on GBNews of Jenrick. Why on earth do GBNews employ the fool Nigel Nelson? Is it just so we can laugh at his bonkers views or is it forced on them by the propaganda outfit OFCOM that enforced endless lies on the public on Net Zero, Lockdowns, Masks, Vaccines (safety and effective lies) with such damaging results.
August 30, 2024
Total nonsense from Stasi Starmer on smoking – people dying a few years earlier (about 5 typically) saves the NHS and years of state pensions (circa Ā£10 billion PA saved) , benefits and social services. Also Smokers pay far more in taxes on cigarette taxes than they cost in extra medical care. What about all the cost to the NHS caused by horse riding, cycling (ten times + more dangerous than travel by car), skiing, pointless botched vanity surgery, boxing, football, rugby, alcohol, over eating, cricketā¦ is he going to ban all these fun activities too. It is hard to be even worse than the Cameron to Sunak fake Tories who were wrong on immigration levels, smoking, net zero, ECHR, energy, tax levels, red tapeā¦ but two tier anti-free speech Keir is far, far worse. Essentially the same lunacy but with the accelerator hard to the floor and a determination to re-enter the EU by stealth.
He said he would not tax working people but now it seems they are to tax vehicle fuel even more. Mainly used by working people as he must know. Almost every action he takes is anti-growth other than relaxing planning perhaps.
August 30, 2024
Perhaps some people prefer the pleasure they get from smoking to the prospect of five more years in a care home in Bognor suffering from dementia. Freedoms of Choice please not Government Knows Best.
We see with net zero, Covid Origins, net harm Covid Vaccines, Covid Lockdowns, Renewable Subsidies, tax levels, economic policy, healthcare systems, energy policy, the counterproductive wars, open door low skilled immigration levelsā¦ that generally the government (& especially in the UK) gets nearly everything totally wrong.
August 30, 2024
Depends really what their aim is?
Maybe ( for whatever agenda) they are absolutely spot on!
eg smoking ban = long term objective of banning tobacco and alcohol.
More pubs will shut for good.
I daresay that productivity is said to be bad for the planet.
It is, after all intimately associated with industrialism.
August 30, 2024
Be careful LL you are starting to sound as if you are independent minded with thoughts of your own. Stop it. Get to the narrative and stop your misinformation, on line safety will not allow objective thinking it undermines the govt. get with it or go to the gulag! Remember Cooper has brought back non hate crime crime reporting!
I did note two days ago a Muslim was convicted of badly assaulting three women, unknown to the offender, who did not wear appropriate head wear. He was given a fine and community sentence no prison for him. Extreme mysoginy? Awful stranger assault without provocation? No, two tier policing and justice is alive and well.
August 30, 2024
+1
August 30, 2024
Letās tax drugs! Itās the rich who can afford cocaine and they have been consuming shedloads for decades tax-free. Also of course, once you officially know who they are, you know they will always be addicts so you have a constant revenue stream.
It would be great if they were banned of controlling any vehicle on the highway. That includes bicycles.
August 30, 2024
They’re complying with Ofcom’s special rules for GB News which require “balance” but which don’t apply to the BBC, C4, Sky or ITV who are free to push lefty establishment propaganda without any “balance” whatsoever.
Personally, I quite enjoy the likes of Nigel Nelson and the two Eco nutters who push the “climate change/Net Zero” lunacy on GB News. They are so obviously obsessive Eco extremists anyone watching who still believes the narrative can’t fail to start suspecting they’re being scammed.
August 30, 2024
+1 always amusing to hear what daft lunacy or bonkers & irrational justifications the foolish Nigel Nelson or the other lefty dopes they have will come out with next! More legal routes a favourite claim as is ārenewables are the cheapest form of electricity!
August 30, 2024
There was a balanced reporting of the new Shetlands wind farm on the early BBC News last night. The presenter stood in front of turbines that werenāt moving, acknowledged the problem of intermittency and even interviewed mainland residents alarmed at the prospect of swathes of land with new pylons. Perhaps there are even elements of the BBC who now realise what Ed Miliband and Net Zero really means for our way of life.
August 30, 2024
Yes, one of their (‘former Labour advisor’) Leftie Ladies was insisting on GBN yesterday that Starmer was “not a Socialist”. I guess if you are going to tell porkies, they may as well be big ones…
August 30, 2024
Stasi Starmer still not allowing questions from GB News at his press conferences. Their views will not be allowed.
JR performed well the other day, I wonder if Starmer could get him on conspiracy of free speech and thought?
August 30, 2024
You make no mention of what that 74,300 were recruited to do, that had to be done because existing staff could not do it in 2019. Knowing this would improve the judgement as to whether it was necessary.
Based on the assumption that the CS recruits it’s own staff divorced from political government, how much of it was empire building. How much of it was the woke intrusion of diversity and inclusion. A none productive job title if ever I heard one. An invention to promote the careers and perceived disadvantage of being in the 15% of the population that is best described as being other than white anglo saxon in origin. I very much doubt if any of that 15% benefit being singled out as being in need of special treatment. In fact it is an insult to the no doubt hard work they have put in after arriving in the UK with little or nothing. It is also an insult to the indigenous 85% to assume they are largely racist by nature. Real racists can be dealt with, when they pop out of the woodwork, under the law. The basic instinct of the UK population is to be inclusive. If and when some feel challenged it is down to the total ineptness of politicians, who isolated from the effects, condemn the people to the effects of the input of a gross 1.2 million immigrants per annum. It is politicians who need diversity awareness training before anyone else.
The answer, previosly stated, is to rewrite the contract under which the CS are employed. Make them the responsibility of the minister with ultimate hire and fire power. This necessitates upping the quality of ministers. You need an awefull chunk of social responsibility to want to jump from a private sector million pound job to that of a minister on a tenth of the sum.
August 30, 2024
I suspect much of the increase in civil service numbers is due to increasing bureaucracy. Take the Equality Act for example, which the courts interpret more widely year by year. This means the diversity and inclusion task of the civil service increases as time goes on, and why they need all those managers. Last year’s policies aren’t adequate for this year, so they have to be extended, which means more work for the managers and then more training for the staff, which eats into their useful productivity. All this additional bureaucracy creates obstacles preventing the normal job being done. There needs to be a cut of the red tape, but that has to be done without chucking out what is actually necessary. It would take a fine mind to sort through what is needed and what is extraneous, and fine minds are hard to come by, especially in the civil service where everyone hates a smart arse.
August 30, 2024
I believe it is called empire building Sir John. The simple fact is, the public sector see having more people to manage as a good thing. The objective the public sector pursue is not efficiency, it is existence,
Draw your own conclusion where that leads.
August 30, 2024
Indeed and every new policy and regulation is used to justify ever more people, more powers and more money. Hence the insane net zero policy and the appalling covid policies that did far more harms than any good. How many pub garden smoking inspectors will be needed to fine people and pubs?
August 30, 2024
Not that many due to the various rules, taxes, staffing, energy cost involved in running a pub, precisely why they have been closing at an alarming rate for years. Before long they will be applying for a new category of SSSI.
August 30, 2024
Perhaps ministers have no experience or concept of structuring and running large organisations and operate by “feels”, position-protection and cv cultivation. Meanwhile they are nominally in charge of departments that are staffed by people who want to protect their empires and experience no hint of competitive pressure.
You now have a government that wants to increase proportion of the population in and dependent on the public sector so there will be no chance of productivity improvements.
If performance improvement cannot be achieved through competitive pressure then action must be taken internally.
A key question – why can a minister not fire a civil servant?
This is a serious question – Labour are appointing political friends to civil service positions so why is the complimentary option not available and used?
August 30, 2024
A key question ā why can a minister not fire a civil servant?
Yet it seems the reverse can happen by accusation of bullying or other such tricks! I expect the Heath Sec. to go first as he occasionally does say relatively sensible things. They wonāt like that.
August 30, 2024
Recall Kwarteng sacked Treasury Permanent Secretary Scholar. Was revenge swift?
August 30, 2024
John’s party had 14 years to smash Labour’s union power bloc in the public sector to address this very issue. The party’s leaders chose to facilitate the union barons and bend to their will. Cameron put party and personal interest before nation. We now see all around us the disastrous consequences of that appeasement politics.
Cameron could have abolished check-off for all state employees but bottled it under union pressure and threats. This simple act would have forced scum Labour to seek funding elsewhere and would starve the unions of taxpayer financed guaranteed funding. This would have dealt the unions a deadly blow.
And now it’s 4 day weeks, massive pay rises, Spanish practices, early retirement on fat pensions and every conceivable workplace scam you can imagine. This level of dependency doesn’t come cheap.
Labour is now more powerful than it’s been in its entire history and still Tory grandees, these scummy snakes slithering around as though nowt much as changed, carry on in their arrogance desperate to resurrect their brand.
I note Hague is trying to force his snout into the Oxbridge trough. This is Tory politics. They think this is their world. In 50 years time this world will have been extinguished by other more powerful social and religious forces. The Tory party still think it’s the halcyon days of the 1950’s when the chaps swooned over the ladies from Lady Margaret’s and then punted down on the river quaffing champers and plovers eggs.
August 30, 2024
Hague who changed views after sharing a room with a male associate on the campaign trail. Weasels like him should not hold public office.
August 30, 2024
Dom, MPs of all parties are ‘public sector’. It is human nature to protect one’s own and try to get more for less work. This is why the Tories let down private industry on all matters relating to the control of working conditions.
Zero-hour contracts have guaranteed holiday pay, 1 day per 9 days worked. They already have sick pay (see ACAS Agency). Casual and zero-hours workers are also entitled to statutory sick pay if they meet the eligibility criteria (off for more than 4 days, same as full-time staff, earn on average Ā£123 a week gross). Ā£116.75 per week for 28 weeks + holiday pay. The tories introduced more reforms on new flexible working regulations to apply from day one of employment. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-to-benefit-from-new-flexible-working-measures
This is why people say they are two cheeks of the same bottom. To the beat of the EU drum.
August 30, 2024
“Civil service numbers rose from 445,480 in 2019 to 519,780 by 2023, an increase of 74,300 or 17%. Total public administration numbers rose by a fifth to 1.2 million.”
According to the “Statistical bulletin – Civil Service Statistics:2024” (20 August 2024) roughly half that growth was in the last year – from the overview;
“There were 63,330 entrants to the Civil Service in 2023/24, up from 56,760 in 2022/23.
In 2023/24, 39,585 people left the Civil Service, down from 46,080 in 2022/23.”
IE under the tories so perhaps you could ask Sunak et al if efficience and effectiveness improvements were included in any of this drive for empire growth.
August 30, 2024
When safe jobs with pensions are hard to come by the wise run for the CS application forms.
August 30, 2024
When in that situation I went self employed and I had full control over my pension arrangements. Unfortunately I have still had to fund the CS fat cat gold plated pensions and their preferred government now threatens to thieve my pension investments.
August 30, 2024
Bringing in the 4 day week will not help either. When they brought in flexi-time (anyone remember that) it was an ideal opportunity for the staff to bank hours when they sat and did nothing so that they could have a Friday off every month whatever urgent work needed to be done. Us managers could not do anything to stop this as the unions were there to support the hard working staff!!
August 30, 2024
If this was already trialled in the public sector and found to reduce productivity, then why is it being foisted on the productive sector? Pretty soon the private sector will realise they’re being mugged.
August 30, 2024
At the end of lock down, Elon Musk sent a letter to all his staff telling them to get back into the office for a five day week or consider consider themselves sacked!
August 30, 2024
It would appear that they recruited some additional civil servants/public sector to actually deliver services during the Covid Tyranny ….. but that, naturally, meant they also had to recruit a raft of new Managers to oversee them, since the existing managerial staff couldn’t possibly be expected to take on any additional workload.
Those Managers then proceeded to complicate the processes and increase the amount of record-keeping, in order to justify their existence and ensure that they can demonstrate they “need” the current staffing levels.
Then of course they needed a few more Diversity Managers to ensure that the Managers were complying with all the tick-box “diversity” administration.
Getting rid of one or two here or there as they voluntarily leave just ensures you end up with the lazy, useless “time-serving” staffers who can’t get a job anywhere else.
You need to review the processes; ask whether the task is really necessary and if it isn’t, stop doing it and make the staff redundant. As you would in the private sector.
Oh, look …. etc ed
August 30, 2024
@ Donna “…you end up with the lazy, useless ātime-servingā staffers who canāt get a job anywhere else” – is that not deliberate, as part of a care in the community programme? Is that not justified by sparing the welfare budget and the presumed boost to mental health of those affected?
August 31, 2024
That certainly was the case in the department I used to work in, although some were cleared out when the Coalition Government first took Office and redundancy was “offered” with some individuals “encouraged” to take it and others refused.
The long-term risk of the “care in the community” staffers is that they end up in a role where they could do some real damage, which was certainly the case in my department.
August 30, 2024
92,000 too many. Rees-Mogg was going to cull them before they culled him! No public spending cuts, tax rises are required to waste at home and around the world!! Give us your money you fools give us your money, we know how to waste it best.
August 30, 2024
Sorry H, but J.Rees-Mogg was not culled by CSs. He resigned on 25 October 2022 after PM Truss resigned. And he was not (re-)elected in July 2024 by the good people of the new constituency of North Somerset and Hanham.
August 30, 2024
Hef,
Rees-Mogg was never going to be allowed to cull the civil service Sunak/Hunt made that clear, hardly a choice to stay on and go back on what he proposed! Despite hard choices for tax rises etc.
August 30, 2024
Where’s Cummings when you need him?
August 30, 2024
“Why isn’t this happening?” You ask. Answer: The government and civil service is run by a mixture of clueless incompetents and ruthless empire builders. Neither appear willing to run the risks involved in the introduction of new technologies that will result in tens of thousands of job losses. The Starmer government will back this inertia because it suits them and reinforces the case to tax “wealth” to pay for 20 billion black hole it claims to have found in public finances.
August 30, 2024
It is not happening as the election has seen a merger of the government with the blob. It is the productive, private sector, part of the economy which will have to pay for the blobās expansion and nest-feathering.
People really should have voted Conservative. It wouldnāt have been great but it would have been better.
August 30, 2024
I don’t think it would have made any difference, Richard1, to employment changes. The Tories already changed many employment terms and rights to flexible work from day 1, even if the job advert said 5 days a week and set out the hours in advance. NMW/NLW had two 10% increases in the last two years, with the age reduced to 21 with a plan to bring it down to 18. Right to Carers leave since April. The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 provides a statutory right for eligible workers and agency workers to request a predictable working pattern. Significant changes are to be introduced to widen the age and earnings scope of automatic enrolment over the next 2 to 3 years. Lots more.
August 30, 2024
Like all public sector operations, the ‘producer’ needs takes priority over ‘customer’ benefit. Any thought of cost saving comes way down the list of priorities.
Senior managers have no incentive to take tough action. If you don’t deliver in the private sector you face dismissal without a large index linked pension. That certainly galvanised tough decisions.
August 30, 2024
My experience of dealing with the civil service is mostly through web interfaces.
These tend to be well designed, easy to use and return the expected outcome quickly. They are very efficient……..
Any problems I have ever experienced come when a human has to get involved. There don’t seem to be enough humans to cope with the times when things go wrong. Given how much is automatic that does make me wonder what all the humans are doing? Are they managing each other or serving the public?
August 30, 2024
Have to tried those automaton answering systems. Tell us clearly what you are calling about: so you tell them. That does not compute hang up.
You call back rephrase it. They turn the questions around and ask you to respond yes or no, then cut you off. It goes on, this mobile isn’t connected to your account can’t help you. Three hours to solve a problem a human could have sorted in 5-10 minutes.
September 6, 2024
Yes AI chatbots on phones and websites do tend to be unable to solve any issue other than allowing the organisation to neglect the custoner/service user.
My praise was for auto fill websites
DVLA, passport office and HMRC online forms are very good.
August 30, 2024
If 74,000 extra were hired to fight the nonexistent Covid epidemic, it represents a serious amount of wasted public money. Assuming the average wage is Ā£30,000, then the bill is Ā£2.24bn per annum. Just get rid of them – they are doing nothing useful at all.
August 30, 2024
Send the bill to Johnson. He recruited them and heās earning a fortune making speeches šš¤£ – must be the rubber ducks in his bath paying.
August 30, 2024
A 6.5% drop in productivity is very alarming and in my opinion responsibility for this chiefly rests with the senior management of the publicic sector divisions.
They have responsibility for the day-to-day operations and they should be drafting proposals to rectify this productivity slump. I suspect many are deficient and thatās why the slump happened in the first place so they themsleves may need replacing.
In my opinion where they dont draft effective proposals they should be sacked and replaced with effective senior management instead. If government can appoint that management then it should.
For the economy to function in a sustainable way every part of it needs efficient allocation of capital (that being finance and labour). If we have too many staff allocated to one division (so that productivity levels are below par) then they need to be allocated to another division where they are needed. There are just under 1 million job vacancies at the moment in the UK economy which is plenty to help with this necessary reallocation. Then we will have a productive public sector where wages are earned and not just dished out.
August 30, 2024
The 74,300 extra were surely not all needed to cope with the passport issuance backlog so what were the rest employed to do? Provide cover for those working from home maybe?
Vivek Ramaswamy’s notion to dismiss half of all government employees on his first day (if elected U.S. President) following which he said “absolutely nothing will break as a result” would have been instructive had he had the chance.
August 30, 2024
I question the intellectual abilities of the current Labour Government in announcing they were no longer going to reduce the number of civil servants or seek to gain productivity increases for pay rises, whilst at the same time saying taxes would have to rise and promising to increase the size of the economy by growth. Do they really believe any of this is rational?
The problem is that the example set by the last Conservative government is a poor one, with limp-wristed management of the public sector, particularly so since the economic suicide of Covid lockdown.
August 30, 2024
The CS and quangos are out of control. Politicians, with the power to legislate, have chosen not to take drastic measures.
Compare with Argentina: “13 May 2024 ā In a bold move, Milei halved the number of ministries and eliminated 70,000 public sector jobs. He also suspended new public works contracts …” (Forbes online).
We don’t have such bold politicians, or such fed up voters, that currently allow such bold measures to be tried out here.
August 30, 2024
29/08/2024 āArgentinian retirees take to the streets as President Milei mulls veto on pension hikeā.
August 31, 2024
@Wanderer – drastic or just actual doing the job of managing THEIR own expenditure. We don’t have bold politicians just ‘bad’ freeloading politicians
August 30, 2024
From Guido
“Out-of-work migrants are costing the taxpayer an eye-watering Ā£8.5 billion a year, according to a new report from the Centre for Migration Control. This comes as ONS figures reveal a record 1,689,000 non-UK nationals are either out of work or simply not bothering to look for a job. And that excludes students and asylum seekersā¦”
Another Ā£8.5 billion for nothing other than personal political vanity – someone has to start managing, controlling costs. Make NI the override for what people receive, no contribution no reward. Look at what their home countries give non-nationals for perspective.
August 30, 2024
same source – Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has blasted the Home Office for repeatedly overspending on asylum support, exceeding the budget by a whopping Ā£7.6 billion other the last three years. Illegal channel migrant crossings continue to surge as well, with over 20,000 migrants crossing in 2024 so far.
‘Exceeding’ means not managing, not controlling expenditure
August 30, 2024
Does that mean that for the last three years under successive Home Secretaries (P.Patel, S.Braverman1, G.Shapps, S.Braverman2, J.Cleverly) the Department had been led by less than efficient Ministers?
August 30, 2024
Hef,
No. It was led by useless spineless PMs! Sunak got what he deserved and the rest of his party got trounced for it!
August 31, 2024
@Hope +1
August 30, 2024
And Ā£8billion to pay unemployed migrants requires 1 million people to work for a year and each pay Ā£8,000 in Tax!
So ONE MILLION UK citizens are working FOR A YEAR solely to pay for this!
August 30, 2024
Barbara, yes amazing how figures appear to look so different in scale when spelt, rather than when shown in raw numerical/number terms
August 31, 2024
Not one of the Ministers in the last Government or this one has the cojones to deny welfare to unemployed foreigners, whether or not they have entered the UK illegally, and the HRA/ECHR prevents us from deporting a large proportion.
They would rather bankrupt the country and destroy our society than toughen up and put the interests of the British people first.
August 31, 2024
@Donna +1
Governments don’t do sums,in the way they don’t do managing or controlling their own expenditure
August 30, 2024
I’m glad someone is looking at the statistics and trying to see where all the money has gone – and is going. Thank you for the information. I’m just looking forward to the first No Confidence vote as the northern towns see through Starmer’s killing spree.
August 30, 2024
But we also see the same in the private sector in utilities, post office, NATS etc – where lazy and relatively corrupt capitalists are making a killing out of monopolies granted to them by governments – no different to relatively corrupt individuals in socialism/Marxism.
We need to focus on helping true capitalists who work hard and with work ethic in particular in the high tech industry. Whilst supporting the public sector for those who can’t work in private sector but who don’t not want to work – and to pay the public sector a good bit less than the private sector.
That’s true efficient capitalism – and proper Conservatism!
Reply The Post Office is a nationalised business, heavily loss making and sent innocent employees to jail Private sector businesses do not do that.
August 30, 2024
OK I stand corrected. Post office is not partly privatised as I thought. But my point overall stands about utilities / NATS etc. Michael O’Leary says NATS are rubbish whilst being paid a fortune.
August 30, 2024
You donāt know the difference between a ācapitalistā and a ācorporatist. So you are COMPLETELY WRONG. To give you a clue – a capitalist is not employed and has their own money invested. A Corporatist is employed and they āgetā share options which the take up only when they can sell at a profit, their own money is not at stake.
Corporatists run ābig businessā. Completely anti-Conservative.
August 30, 2024
OK I get what you’re saying. But not sure what you mean by / why ‘anti-Conservative’?
August 30, 2024
āThe ONS put the loss of productivity at 6.5% 2020 to 2023. The Treasury say we lost Ā£20 bn that way. It looks more like Ā£30 bn. How did it happen?ā
Because we had the blue socialist wing of the Uniparty. Now we have the red wing, which being in alignment with the fifth column communists in the Civil Service, academia, institutions, āOfsā and regulators as well as the judiciary and police, will mean it will continue at pace for they know that the path to control is through impoverishment. So the more people they can employ the sooner we get to the Sovietās āthey pretend to employ us and we pretend to workā
The National Grid Electricity System Operatorās (NGESOās) recently published Future Energy Scenario (FES) describes that for 2050 their āHolisticā Net Zero Pathway requires us to accept expensive electricity with chaotically intermittent and forced rationing euphemistically described as ācustomer engagementā and ābehavioural changeā. As a Pathway which will make us poor and both economically and militarily in the control of China, who will be supplying not only our energy infrastructure but most of our goods, you could think that it was written by a cabal of Communists drawn from the 150,000 Chinese āstudentsā currently “studying” in our universities.
CO2 causing CAGW is a Communist hoax.
August 30, 2024
Labour has never seen the need to keep public expenditure and headcount down in the public sector. It’s why they have always left the finances in a mess for the Conserrvatives to spend years sorting out.
The last Government realised what was needed but like many things. failed to do anything effectively about it, hence they lost power. Unfortunately, the 22% of the electorate who voted Labour failed to realise that Starmer and Co were not going to break the habit of a lifetime now !
As a lifelong Conservative, and looking at the current make up of the parliamentary party after the election, I came to the conclusion that there is zero chance of the party re-adopting proper Conservative policies.
Earlier this week I paid my Ā£25 and joined Reform. I hope that the remaining few proper Conservative MPs like Esther, Priti and Suella reach the same conclusion and move across to Reform. The new party needs their reputation and experience, as well as that of our host.
August 30, 2024
The answer is simple. Make 400,000 Civil Servants redundant which still leaves 120,000 to do the work.
Only then will productivity increase and full use be made of AI.
That would save around Ā£17 billion a year now and a considerable sum which would not be paid in inflation-linked, final salary pensions.
But doing that would send the unions, media and the liberal elite into a frenzy of absolute horror.
However, the next Conservative/Reform PM will have to do it, as they will have no choice because Labour will bankrupt in the UK in the next five years.
August 30, 2024
What can all of these people be doing? How are they filling their time?
We need to be told where our money is going.
August 30, 2024
Kenneth
They are all reading each others e mails, that’s what happens when you copy in hundreds of people each time you submit just one.
August 30, 2024
If Sir John allows, and my apologise for drifting from the narrative, but is still relevant
Not my usual but as its Friday couldn’t resist ‘Raise your hand if you didnāt vote Labour!’
https://x.com/benonwine/status/1828934890881995030/photo/1
We have to thank Rishi/Hunt, CCHQ and the Conservative Party for the fine mess we have found ourselves in, most of us knew what would happen but the rot had to be removed. The insult is now the Conservative Party overlords want the opposition leader to be another continuity failure, they want to offer up more of why they failed… They just don’t get it, they don’t Listen, Hear or want to work with the Country
August 30, 2024
John, is the probation service covering its costs from the charges it makes?
Is the passport office covering its costs from the charges it makes?
What about the DVLA? Why are they still using cheques rather than bank transfers?
August 30, 2024
If workers are working from home and only doing 3 days per week, does that mean their computers, telephones, etc, need doubling to cover a 5 or 6-day-per-week service with two staff rather than one? Is that what this is about, getting the current economically inactive ‘half-working’ for the same money that a current full-timer gets in the public sector?
August 30, 2024
Hi sir John
It happening because we have never in my lifetime of 78 years have we had a government for the people or country we were ruled by the EU and still are in places
It’s a ten year cycle starts with the people having to tighten their belts and doing without and after a few years thing seem to get a little better then just a people are feeling better the government changes or some other disaster comes along and we start all over again but its always the people that have to pay . It seems to happen over a ten year period
August 30, 2024
211 illegal economic /criminals arrived in the UK yesterday from the safe country of France ā¦thats if we’re still allowed to to call them ‘illegal immigrants’
August 30, 2024
Off Topic.
A council has apologised to an 82-year-old woman who was given a fixed penalty notice for feeding ducks and fish at her local pond. Faye Borg was in Morden Hall Park in south-west London on Thursday morning when she was approached by two Merton Council wardens who issued her with a Ā£150 fixed penalty notice for littering.
The penalty notice reads that a “female was seen throwing biscuits in the river”.
Ms Borg does not wish to speak about her ordeal, but her neighbours Darren Dickenson and Maria Bentley-Dingwall have told the BBC that the wardens “followed Faye to outside her house and demanded she paid the fine on the spot”.
Mr Dickenson said his elderly neighbour came to his house in tears after the warden was “very aggressive and rude”, while Ms Bentley-Dingwall described the ordeal as “terrifying” for Ms Borg.
The leader of the London Borough of Merton, Ross Garrod, said: āI was very concerned to hear about this incident and would like to offer my apologies to the resident. “A senior council officer has visited her with a bouquet of flowers.āWe have cancelled the fixed penalty notice and are taking this matter up with our contractor to ensure that it does not happen again.ā
Morden Hall Park is a National Trust property, meaning council wardens have no jurisdiction and cannot issue fixed penalty notices.