There are some great doctors and nurses in the NHS who work tirelessly and go the extra mile to help patients. There are some wonderful teachers in state schools who inspire pupils and stay to organise the after school activities. This article praises them and it not about them. Despite a cadre of great employees dedicated to the right spirit of public service, the public sector as a whole is racked by low productivity, poor quality of service and too many disasters.
There are long waiting lists for NHS treatment. There are schools that put up with poor results. The Post Office put good employees into prison blaming them for computer mistakes. Some hospitals have scandals over avoidable deaths of babies. The contaminated blood scandal hit too many patients, giving them diseases that damaged their lives. There are crashes , signal failures and delays caused by nationalised Network Rail. Our Border Force brings illegal migrants into the country instead of keeping them out. These quality problems are manifestations of more general management issues. Why does the public sector have so many well paid managers, and why are the management results overall so poor?
The civil service has expanded from 384,000 in 2016 to 515,000 (fte) this year with no visible sign of improved performance. Indeed, productivity collapsed over covid and the lockdowns and has still not recovered to its 2019 level seven years later. NHS employee numbers have expanded from 1.03m (fte) in 2016 to 1.38 m (fte) in 2025, an increase of a third in under ten years. In the case of the NHS it is true more nurses and doctors and more support staff to handle a rising caseload were clearly needed, but the productivity numbers show productivity fell 2019-25 as the new staff were added.
So why is productivity so poor in the public sector? It is because the public sector employs too many people who are not doing work directly linked to providing patients, pupils, clients, service users with more and better service. It is because the plentiful supply of managers does not succeed in managing the large staff in ways which promote greater quality and efficiency. Over seven years when fast changes in computing have allowed many private sector companies to achieve much more administration with fewer people the public sector has both spent a lot on computers and ended up with more staff to do the same thing.
The public sector likes to blame a lack of money or a lack of staff for any crises or shortfalls in its service. They see efficiency drives as undermining quality. When asked to do a cost down exercise they list a series of unpalatable cuts affecting users rather than dismantling unwanted parts of the overheads.
In good organisations quality and efficiency are opposite sides of the same coin. Get things right first time and you save remediation and repeat costs. Provide a better service and you can shrink the complaints department. Have fewer better managers and the staff will respond to positive direction, instead of groaning under too many managerial requests. Have limited numbers of managers and they will be forced to concentrate on the essentials and on getting things right first time. Use limited stocks well and turn them over quickly so there will be less waste and damage of stock items and smaller warehouses.
The public sector fails to reply promptly, needs to send holding replies and ends up having to provide a longer reply after the excessive delay. NHS appointments are made more complex by use of digital technology that should make them easier. Patients needing treatment often get their appointments cancelled at the last minute. Some clinics continue to provide same time appointments for many people so they have to wait needlessly. Companies House with its new digital ID system prevents some people from registering their directorships or updating the information. No one bothers to sort it out.
Theare are two systems of ultimate authority in the public sector. Arms length bodies like nationalised industries and regulatory authorities are run by well paid Chief Executives who are jointly responsible for the conduct and results of institution with the Chairman of the Board. They have boards of non executives who are meant to monitor standards, performance and budgets. The larger bodies pay around £250,000- £500,000 basic pay to the CEO and usually grant a bonus, however bad the performance. This reveals the weakness of Chairmen and a lack of proper Board accountability. Each CEO of the Post Office as its losses built up and its employees were mishandled was in most years paid a bonus when they should have been sacked for the continuing losses and the disaster of employee treatment. The bosses of HS 2 were rewarded very well for losing control of the costs on an heroic scale and delaying the project by more than a decade.
These bodies need to be put under more accountable CEOs, with bonus schemes geared to the main outcomes the government wants. In the case of the Post office bonus should only be paid on return to profits and on full resolution of the employee issues. In the case of HS 2 the CEO should only get bonus if there have been big improvements through cost down and delay elimination from the current dreadful situation. The Governor of the Bank of England should not be earning any bonus all the time he is losing the state huge sums on bonds. Boards need to be told to craft proper incentive schemes only paying big money to CEOs who are saving taxpayers serious money or bringing in more business revenue to the industry they are running.
Departments and services that are run by Ministerial departments face the challenge of Ministerial responsibility. Ministers are not full time well paid CEOs of their departments, but nor are they mere non executive Directors having to leave working decisions to senior executives. The public holds them to account and blames the Minister if things go wrong. Even where the Minister has appointed a Chief Executive or senior official to run something the Minister is still in charge and does have to intervene if their chosen one is failing to deliver or taking actions that anger the public.
In the Home Office Home Secretaries do not want a large supply of illegal migrants coming into the country. They themselves are not going to become border officials at Dover or captains of the Border Force vessels who pick up many of the migrants mid Channel. The public however recognise that the Ministers can direct, reinforce or change these people, and can change the rules and requirements placed on them. Failure to do so will rightly result in Ministers being held to blame for the continuing disaster of our failed border control. Ministers do need to get into the detail of why staff are not stopping the boats or smashing the gangs as required. They need to find people and measures which can do so urgently.
Theare are obvious things to do to shed overhead and rid government of too much ESG/DEI overlay impeding serving the public better. There needs to be a staff recruitment freeze in most areas allowing an overstaffed activity to slim down without redundancies by merging or abolishing posts as they become empty. There needs to be a complete revision of bonus arrangements to pay better bonuses for success in quality and cost reduction , paying nothing for failure to raise productivity. There needs to be a destocking exercise as the public sector is heavily overstocked. The NHS had a stock of protective clothing ahead of covid but much of it was no use when there was an outbreak that needed it. Government needs more just in time supply capacity on tap and less stock deteriorating in warehouses.
Higher quality and higher productivity are two sides the same coin. They are brought about by a combination of high energy, careful analysis and sensitive leadership of staff by senior managers. Large parts of the public sector described as broken even by the government Ministers who are meant to love and lead it needs to adoot continuous improvement and to discover that they can achieve much more with huge sums of money already committed to their areas.
August 30, 2026
Good morning.
There are good and bad employees both in the Public and Private Sectors. But one thing that stands out between the two is the power of the unions.
Back in the days when the UK had a large primary and secondary manufacturing industry the unions were both prevalent and powerful. Who of a certain age cannot forget the Ealing comedy, I’m Alright Jack ? It portrayed, in comedy fashion, the relationship between unions and management. But in the 60’s and 70’s this was no laughing matter as the power of militant unions, combined with weak management and poor investment undermined British industry.
As our industrial competitiveness waned and industry gave way to the Service Sector and foreign imports, the unions found themselves going extinct. So they moved into local and national government.
I am therefore of the opinion that we will never get a hold of the Public Sector, both in pay and productivity, until we de-unionise the State. A great undertaking but, one that has to be started.
August 30, 2026
It should be possible to get hold of the Public Sector by shrinking it. Let businesses opt out of the NHS for their employees with tax incentives, let parents opt out of the state school system again with tax incentives, move the welfare state to the charity sector and return taxes to individuals so they can contribute of their own free will.
Can the government at least encourage firms to offer dental to their employees with tax incentives? So many people can’t get an NHS dentist but there’s plenty of private capacity.
Smaller organisations tend to be more efficient. Economy of scale only works up to the point where the organisation becomes clogged.
August 30, 2026
The 1959 film ‘I’m All Right Jack’ is educational as well as humorous and should be on the curriculum for pupils.
August 30, 2026
“Why does the public sector have so many well paid managers, and why are the management results overall so poor?”
The public sector has given up working for the British people. They have succumbed to Robert Conquest’s second and third laws of politics and are never sacked for laziness, negligence, incompetence, malfeasance, corruption, misbehaviour, insubordination, criminal behaviour or even treachery.
August 30, 2026
A very long article John telling us what most of us already know. I volunteer at the local hospital, the number of people wandering around with boxes of files or staff meetings in the cafe is ridiculous. On a daily basis I probably see 20% front line staff, the rest being administrative.
Simple jobs like changing a light bulb become major excersises in waste because the maintenance company is so expensive, only when there is a days works worth are they called. The unions make sure the staff don’t interfere.
The latest waste is removing almost every door in the hospital to check clearances and fit new seals. This is costing the NHS millions and they have no input into it.
The public sector is there basically to service itself actively encouraged by the unions. Efficiency comes a very poor second to self preservation.
We have home trained doctors and nurses stacking supermarket shelves because the NHS prefers to recruit overseas. There is so much that could be done if the blob was swept away.
August 30, 2026
if you want examples of poor public sector you only have to look at the financial ombudsman service or the probate office. they both give decisions which are little better than tossing coins. the probate office has judges who have no law degree, and are not qualified solicitors or barristers, yes that’s correct completely unqualified. the FOS doesn’t even pretend to have judges, it makes life changing decisions with raw graduates. no quality control, poor customer satisfaction, and very expensive to challenge in the courts. pseudo justice that would be laughed at in a banana republic. and of course long delays. sack the lot of them. actual properly qualified judges please, open up the empty court rooms, etc.
August 30, 2026
Many are under the misapprehension that the NHS exists to heal the sick. Nothing could be further than the truth. The NHS exists to provide employment for women who wish to return to the workforce after having children. They do not want low-paid cleaning jobs etc – they want senior level administration posts on generous salaries so they can afford a new Tesla. And then they want to play the office empire building game.
The government regularly gives the NHS vast sums in extra money for more doctors, consultants, nurses, lab people, specialists such as radiographers etc. Do we get more clinical staff? We do get a few, but mostly its extra layers of middle management, more department heads on humungous salaries, more wokery specialists etc.
And not forgetting the ridiculously expensive and useless QUANGO NHS England, which Streeting decided to eliminate because of role duplication. Actually, all that seems to have happened is that their employees are being “re-deployed” into other areas of NHS management
The NHS is one of the largest employers in the world, employing ~1.38 million fte staff members. However, this number only includes ~130,000 doctors and ~300,000 nurses. About 30%. Labour should scrap a couple of layers of administrative middle management, freeing up whole floors in hospitals that could be converted into wards.
End the office empire building and bring in more AI, as the private sector is doing. Costs will fall dramatically with fewer cock-ups to cover up for years.
August 30, 2026
So if we could try and restore the values of the Quakers (and Christianity in general in particular work ethic, public duty, taking responsibility for self, depending on family over state, not being reckless with money, not being a spendthrift but being generous all the same in a wise way, patriotism etc) here in the UK, the following would happen:
1. National debt would tumble
2. Tax would tumble
3. Value for money for public services would soar
4. Productivity would soar
And so on. We’ve seen it with the Quakers. It works (it’s not just saying this is what might happen based on the life of someone such as Joseph of Egypt in the OT, we’ve seen it very clearly in history here in the UK!)
Lastly, I love money but I’d rather be a relatively poor farmer in the Yorkshire Dales than being ‘rich’ in so many soulless and crazy places in the USA.
August 30, 2026
Also, the world of Jane Austen is a brilliant model on what we should be basing our great nation on. She was a Christian woman with a sense of humour. She was a conservative woman who would have strongly supported the values of the gentry (and being a ‘gentleman’ or ‘lady’ – she was from the gentry), the merchant classes (and healthy capitalism – her family was connected to people in business), the armed forces (brothers in), the church (father in), the arts (I mean she was a writer), and Oxford and Cambridge (her brothers educated at St John’s – Oxford). Perfect. And if we look at her novels, how she warns us how corrupt people can be (who here would hire the villain Wickham for example – he’d be in the private sector, no doubt, and trying to run off with investors’ money if he could). In order to have a strong culture and civilisation, you have to have a system that is able to control and challenge corruption. And none of her books are about politics or economics. These are very limited in what they can achieve for people and a country. What you need is people in business and public life in general who are honest and hard-working etc. This is what really makes a country’s economy and a country overall thrive. Not the politics or economic or even the judiciary (important as these all are). So we have to focus again and again and again in working with the churches and those in education, the arts and media to foster these positive values that we see in Jane-Austen’s Vivek into our people of whichever social background they are part of. Then you one has a chance of making one’s country great. Without this, one gets is MEDIOCRITY. Same old, same old. And then life is all over. And our quibbles didn’t amount to anything. If anything at all.
August 30, 2026
Agree with much of your comment today John.
The new Companies HouseComputer system is quite honestly unfit for purpose.
Been unfortunate enough to need significant NHS use in the last 18 months, and it has been interesting to see and experience how various hospitals work.
The London hospital I am under communicates everything possible to me by either, e mail or text, consultations are frequently and mainly completed on the telephone, although major consultations are completed in person.
Unfortunately their computer system cannot hook up fully with my own GP Practice, as their systems are different.
My local Hospital always wants consultations in person, even when it’s a simple follow-up, and their communication is often by a complicated system that my mobile phone cannot access easily.
I have however found that the NHS app seems to work well with both.
The layout of both hospitals appears to be very poor and complicated with no logical theme or plan, as does the maintenance programme, but I guess that is what you get with add on’s, after add on’s, after add on’s to old buildings.
I have found most front line staff seem dedicated to their work.
August 30, 2026
And one of the big mistakes Reform makes is that Brits wants to be like the USA. No, no, no!
That’s a huge, massive category error!
Sure, lots of Brits don’t want to be part of the EU. But that’s about maintaining sovereignty and not being run by bureaucrats / socialists / WOKE.
But that does NOT mean therefore they want the American model either. No, no, no!
The American model is based on the fact that the USA is a new nation. And that ‘success’ in the USA is very much about how much money you have (and showing off about it from one degree to another). But Brits – like Europeans in general – frown on this. They see this attitude as nouveau riche / showy-offy / vulgar. Sure, Europeans (and Brits) love money. But not to show off about it. And not to be obsessed about it as much as Americans are. For we have our culture, too. Here in the UK, that is village life, the pub, cricket, football, and lots, lots more. And in Sweden that includes things like Nordic Gold (or social trust). Things like that. This is one good reason why Reform is partly doomed (unless something apocalyptic happens to the UK). And even more doomed, for aligning themselves so closely to Donald Trump and his ‘values.’
August 30, 2026
You speak for yourself, ED M, probably others too, but not for me.
August 30, 2026
I respect your views Jim.
No doubt we have the same goals (low taxation, lower debt, high productivity, pro sovereignty, really cut down on immigration etc). And I think many of our approaches are the same. But others not.
August 30, 2026
And there is now increasingly a negative reaction here in the UK to American globalisation including seeing bright, garish American-branded signage on our beautiful, old streets. And also American language infiltrating our own British language, in particular amongst the young. Like the grey squirrel squeezing out our native red squirrel.
The Tory party needs to focus on sovereignty and sensible capitalism but not basing itself on the American model. Rather we need healthy relations with both the USA and Europe but not being governed by the American economic model nor being governed by European socialism / WOKE / bureaucracy.
We are Britain. Unique and great. But who also wants to have strong relations with Europe and the USA but in the right way and for the right reasons. We should be able to pick and choose and not have that choice taken away from us by Americans on the one hand and Europeans on the other.
Reply So if we turn our backs on US capitalism we lose most of the digital revolution. How about life without smartphones, downloads etc
August 30, 2026
We should however take the US line and Trump’s sensible advice to close the borders to all but net benefit non criminal migrants, ditch the ECHR, ditch net zero, drill baby drill and frack and spend more on defence and spend it far more efficiently. Alas little chance of that with this government of economic and defence vandals.
August 31, 2026
Not sure what’s going to happen to Trump after his presidency is over. He’s made so many enemies. And the following are going to be after him like crazy 1. His political enemies. As well as those who think he might have undermined the American constitution in various possible ways. 2. His business enemies and enemies in general including those from foreign powers and their intelligence services. 3. A tonne of money to be made in the media by those who can uncover uncomfortable truths (and possibly worse) about Trump.
Now he’s protected by his Presidency. But that protective shield will disappear, almost completely, once he’s out of power.
August 30, 2026
No. I’m a capitalist. And that includes American capitalism. But I reject things like having a US health-care service (but we do need more private money in healthcare service for sure).
It’s shocking how a hard-working middle-class American can lose all his hard-earned money because he has to have one really expensive operation. That’s the US health-care system for you.
As would the majority of conservative/right-wing voters here in the UK reject this.
To me, socialism (and WOKE) is a heresy. But healthy capitalism – not at all. The opposite. We need it for sure.
Reply Have you read the details of Obamacare with Biden’s extensions?
August 30, 2026
How can the NHS move from employing 1.03million full time equivalent employees to 1.38 million in seven years then have staff go on strike for more money? The scale of slow walking routine NHS activities is shocking. An Xray taken to help identify the cause of a painful joint, results in a multi week wait for follow up by a ‘doctor’ despite the technician who took the Xray seeing on screen what the issue is, they are not allowed to comment or impart that knowledge to the patient? The scale of protectionism in the NHS by doctors unions is what needs to change. Many nurses doing routine treatments know what is needed, but are prevented from exercising their good sense and awareness because the system says…No!
A top down rebuilding of the oversized NHS needs to be done and fast.
The power held over government by Public Sector unions must be broken. The shrinking Private Sector tax payers can’t afford it any longer. That is why government borrowing is increasing, it is there method of covering the shortfall .
The public sector system in broken, it is not fit for purpose. It serves the unions, but it does not serve the people who are paying for it.
August 30, 2026
About 80% to 90% of illness is down to bad lifestyle choices from one degree to another.
1. Eating too much sugar and processed foods. 2. Not exercising enough (instead of a brisk walk every day, bit of aerobic exercise such as walking up a hill and moving around as much as possible instead of sitting).
We shouldn’t point the finger as we’re all imperfect in different (and similar ways) but we need to do more to protect people from sugary and processed foods and encouraged to take more exercise (basically going back to how people lived during the 1950’s and before for thousands of years. Hardly anyone then was fat. Now you’re not allowed to use the word ‘fat’ – how ridiculous).
Not only does too much sugar and processed foods / lack of exercise lead to serious illness over time, during the time building up to this it leads to increased depression and addictive behaviour, lower productivity, poor relationships with others both in work and the family, and so on, and so costing the tax payer billions and billions in non-health-care issues as well – not just the NHS.
August 30, 2026
Give people the option of opting out of the NHS, getting back the tax they pay for it and going private.
Relieve the NHS of the responsibility of treating lifestyle diseases. Let the patient pay for it himself, take out insurance or crowd fund.
August 30, 2026
Indeed fair competition between state and private not a rigged market. Do the same for schools, transport, housing, broadcasting…
August 30, 2026
So why is productivity so poor in the public sector? Well the first problem is it is not their money, nor they who benefit from the service they provide so they do not care about cost or value delivered. They do not have to compete for “customers” they have their “customers” money already. So tax payers just get what little of value they are given and have to lump it.
The other huge problem is misdirection we now know that the £600bn spend on Covid vaccines and Covid lockdowns was worse that wasted it did huge net harms, as does the £1 trillion + wasted on May’s net zero and the climate change act, road blocking another insanity, the vast market rigging for trains and public transport, the state private school market rigging…. Despite these things doing net harm at vast expense they still count as being “productive”. Look how productive we were at causing heart arrhythmias, myocarditis, blood clots…
Look how efficient we are a making people ill, blocking the roads, making energy vastly more expensive and far less reliable…
If a business is funded by tax payers and is a near monopoly you have little or no control at best a vote every few years. With a business in competition customers vote for every time they shop there. Bad businesses fail. Bad state businesses keep going and going burning tax payers cash often doing vast harms too.
August 30, 2026
I agree to an important degree. But there is also corruption in the private sector (which is why we need a strong judiciary to try and control that). So privatisation not enough and some people in private sector can be positively bad.
August 30, 2026
So are we at a point where the NHS needs dismantling for the private model ?
August 30, 2026
First make sure that what the government is delivering is a sensible thing for them to deliver then get them to deliver it. So much of what they deliver is economic and even health vandalism.
A friend I know was told on her first day in the civil service (in the introduction to the job) that she got x days bank holidays and y days holidays and she could also take up to 30 days sick PA on top before anyone would query it and this was 40 years back. Now they have working from home too.
August 30, 2026
We also now have the government forcing artificial folic acid into our flour, bread etc. this may benefit a small minority of people (or rather their babies) who are pregnant (or about to become so) but on balance is likely to do far more harm than good to the far more numerous others.
Yet another net harm the government is doing with out taxes – and pushing up the cost of these products too. What drives this insanity? Is it vested interests, the WHO, bought politicians, conflicted or deluded experts…?
Specific Conditions and Groups who should probably avoid it are:-
Untreated Vitamin B12 Deficiency or Pernicious Anemia: High doses of folic acid can fix blood problems without curing a B12 shortage. This hides the deficiency and allows serious, permanent nerve and spinal damage to progress unnoticed.Undiagnosed Anemia: Taking folic acid before a doctor checks your blood can obscure the true cause of your fatigue or illness.
Epilepsy or Seizure Disorders: Large amounts of folic acid can lower the levels of anti-seizure medicines like phenytoin or phenobarbital in your body. This can make seizures harder to control.
Active Cancer or History of Cancer: High-dose supplements may stimulate the growth of certain existing cancer cells. Patients should consult their oncologist before taking high amounts of folic acid.Known Allergies: Anyone who has experienced a severe allergic reaction, skin rash, or breathing trouble from synthetic folic acid ingredients must avoid it.
August 30, 2026
A fish rots from the head. Parliament is the head. We might ask why we need 809 members of the HoL?
The Blood Scandal, The Post Office scandal, Grenfell all started with shoddy legislation, fear of expenditure and being found out. At the root of these problems is HM Treasury’s obsession with secrecy and cover up. Very British.
A sensible commercial organisation would get rid of those at the top, a massive clear out. But we can’t do that, we get rid of the useless and dishonest. But the remaining pool is just as useless and dishonest and there are no good new ideas for them to draw on. No new ideas means no new money coming in.
I note that over the past 20 years the composition of the Civil Service has changed. A larger proportion are Grade 6 and Grade 7 or SCS or SEO has grown and the proportion of lowly AO and AA has fallen. Excellent, Parliament (the boss) is improving the quality of staff. But only a fool or a politician would believe that. The CS is the love baby and fount of fees for the consultants and follows every daft nostrum.
May I suggest we outsource most of our government – to the Chinese. They seem fairly efficient and suitably ruthless. We have much rubbish to get rid of, mostly in Westminster.
Reply Arguably in the public sector there has been far too much top management change so no one is ever to blame for anything as they do not run it for long enough
August 30, 2026
China is not free from corruption either!
It’s all basically down to how much of the spirit of work ethic versus corruption there is in a country – and this is ultimately down to social/cultural factors not politics/economic/judicial ones (the cleverest political/economic approaches aren’t nearly enough to rid a country of corruption – not even a strong judiciary).
August 30, 2026
“no one is ever to blame for anything as they do not run it for long enough” rather the same with government Ministers not that many of them have any knowledge of their areas of responsibility. We have 7 Energy ministers and junoir Ministers none have any science or engineering degrees.
So Sir James Cleverly is to go as he clearly will not win his essex seat again. He was favourite to replace Kemi recently. I find the man hugely misguided on almost everything, hugely unimpressive and not very clever – but if he can save London from the appalling Kahn (and or Labour) good look to him. Labour have restored transferable vote (why did the tories remove it?) so at least here the right wing vote spit should not matter too much.
August 30, 2026
On top of this poor productivity (and indeed negative totally misdirected and damaging activity like Covid Vaccines. lockdowns and Net Zero) we also have so much insane and misdirected red tape. This is a tax on the productive sector that does not even produce tax (indeed it produces less tax by making things less efficient and less profitable). Slashing red tape would be a win win for everyone but the parasitic regulators.
Release people to get real and actually productive jobs.
Also stop paying healthy people to encourage them not to work and not even to learn how to work. The youth unemployment figures in the UK are appalling – pure evil delivered by this dire Labour government.
August 30, 2026
‘Slashing red tape’ – who does that exactly? And why are they going to do that? Why are they going to be so bothered? How can we trust them? Where do these people exist in real life – where they are doing all this for the public good? Most people more concerned about getting their wage, where they are going on holidays, and their pension and/or their image. Not doing good work in the background for the common good (which is true work ethic and patriotism – bit like the elves in the Elves and the Shoemaker, making gold shoes for the shoemaker – sadly, there are few utterly selfless elves like this in the world!).
It’s ultimately down to social/cultural values like work ethic not political or economic systems (although these of course can be important – of course).
August 30, 2026
Stopping benefits won’t create the jobs needed. For that you need to reverse punitive taxation and legislation on businesses, and for that you need a different government.
August 30, 2026
It used to amuse/annoy me that when my company bid for Government contracts, we used to avoid a lot of paperwork issues by being ISO9000 regiistered (which cost money and took some effort to both obtain and then maintain). However, those same government orgnisations we were dealing with, clearly had no equivelent ISO quality system themselves…
August 30, 2026
I think a lot of public sector inefficiencies are down to attitude as much as anything. I did a basic course on how to use a pc. about 25 years ago. It was a small group which included a woman from the Civic Offices. She was the only one who bull-dozed through what she was asked to do, crashed the pc several times and spent most of her time boasting about her husband being the Chief Guillotine Operater. I don’t think she learnt much!
August 30, 2026
And the closest we come to the elves in the Elves in the Shoemaker, making gold shoes, and doing good behind the scenes in general and not just for their salary and/or their image is the work ethic and sense of public duty of the Quakers and others with Christian values like them. Because the Bible says you have to do stuff for the common good not just for yourself (doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat either but to work hard, giving people benefit of doubt). Whether you work in politics, business, the judiciary, the public sector, university scientist, writer, publisher, farmer, fisherman, chimneysweep, clock-maker, shoemaker, etc .. As well as for family (first), doing charity work (and being generous to people in general not just charities), and country (patriotism).
August 30, 2026
We are led by a man who did not earn his crown
No debate no leadership contest nothing
What message does that send ?
We need a radical very tough government to rescue this country
Mr Burnout is exactly the wrong man for the job just like the previous guy
I have very little hope that the NHS will undergo the reform it needs
August 30, 2026
I can agree with that having had plenty of experience in this area.
The NHS system falls down, IMVHO, due to antiquated practices and poor leadership from above. Where services are contracted out it is clear that they are not effectively monitored, for example the ambulance service or equipment maintenance.
Motivation is not something the NHS does well. It’s not just about hours and pay – they have a large staff turnover because staff become dispirited at the dictatorial attitude from above.
Certainly NHS staff should be valued more as individuals, and this applies to all public service employees as well, they should be recognized for their individual contributions to making things work. This can only be achieved by getting rid of collective bargaining and introducing annual appraisals for all staff, with individual targets as well as group ones. Then just like the private sector pay rises would match performance.
Reducing the power of Unions would be a bonus.
August 30, 2026
It is never about the people, it the command and control at the top, the two tier rule by a new breed that sees themselves as overlords. The AWOL Starmer followed by the AWOL Burnham, the World love me so must you, all while the country burns.
It is highlighted today with Burnham’s speech to the BBC, using the ‘I’ an ‘He’ a lot infers he will be the one effecting changes
The Sentencing Act 2026, approved by Parliament, primarily Labour MPs and those of the left in the House of Lords then achieving Royal Accent to before becoming UK Law. Those that wanted early release Included Olivia Bailey Labour MP whose is the MP representing the Killers of Pc Andrew Harper. – this has given Burnham bad press although it is UK Law. But as our new Overlord he will interpret things to suit hi re-election campaign.
So it is the same with our basic services and structures, people, unnecessary people with out experience get to ‘order’ the professional, the life long workers how the new empire will be run. It starts with building a protection barrier around the new boss, the ever increasing meaningless department to in act WOKE discipline, force through the discrimination of the DEI. All as the ego tells them is a job well done. Service delivery, the customer they don’t figure just as it is at the top of the UK, its Parliament, its Government it is ‘me’, self that is the over-ride
August 30, 2026
Labour can’t manage and isn’t working.
A General Election is the first step towards improvement.
August 30, 2026
Job specifications should define Objectives, Responsibilities and Targets.
Those whose performance does not fulfil or causes the opposite and damages the organisation should be fired or penalised.
In the case of water companies perhaps this should extend to imprisonment.
August 30, 2026
Figures can be a bit imprecise but following the closure of many bank branches the Post Office handles cash to the tune of around £3.5bn to £4bn each month of which perhaps 70% accounts for deposits, the remainder being withdrawals. The deposits are invariably immediately sent to bank accounts. A recent newspaper article suggested that since the checks on deposits at Post Offices are far removed from the robust checks the banks used to undertake the Post Office has become the biggest money laundering operation ever seen in this country.
Doubtless some management will get bonuses for increasing this criminal activity but they should be in jail for overseeing such practices.
August 30, 2026
civil servants up 34% HHS employees up 34% probably ditto in every branch of central and local government.
UK population increase in the same period 9%.As for every door being checked it’s health and safety upgrade
principally to contain any fire outbreak and reduce the risk of spreading out of control.Building insurance
cover requires this.
August 30, 2026
The most important thing is not to raise the quality of the public sector but to reduce the scope and extent of the public sector to the bare minimum. There are some things, such as much regulation, that they do that are just not worth the candle of anybody doing it and there is much else, especially in health and schooling that can be publicly funded yet privately operated as some prisons and much nursery education is. Such publicly funded but privately operated activities are often healthily competitive between operators and are generally better value for less money than what is publicly operated. The idea of getting whizzkids to run the public sector efficiently is wrong because even if miraculously one could find such whizzkids (who are most unlikely to be politicians!) it would all slip back in a few years with their successors and we would once again get over one third more civil servants and over one third more NHS staff in under ten years and far more Admirals than navy ships without any noticeable benefit to the general public! So the priority must be structural change in reducing both the activities the public sector runs and massively reducing the number of public employees.
August 30, 2026
A very good article, but it is basic common sense. The management of the public sector and the NHS is appalling.
Mainly because there is no accountability. When did you last hear of a Civil Service Permanent Secretary being sacked for incompetence? When a scandal erupts in the NHS the senior managers may be castigated, but in no time at all, they are employed by another NHS Trust.
If only around 30% of NHS staff are Doctors and Nurses, then add porters, cooks, cleaners, and medical staff like lab technicians, etc.I guess that would bring it up to about 50% of total staff. That suggests the other 50% are managers and their staff members, who could be mostly culled.
But where is the Government with the courage to demand change and make sure it happens?
August 30, 2026
Ed M:without going into genetic testing I am confident that my Yorkshire roots are very very deep.
Evidently your farming enterprise has emerged unscathed from catastrophic land fires.I am glad
for you and your family.However given what the good citizens of Middlesborough are undergoing
ASK THEM? stay here or move to anywhere in the USA(propper coppering still exists there)
August 30, 2026
given concerns frequently raised about troubles in our villages towns and cities an astonishing
stat.2015-2025 England and Wales(can’t get Scotland and Ulster).Police employees up29000(14%)
Budget up £6.8b 50%.Never see a cop in my town but I may have to wait a wee while but I will
receive dedicated attention from my regional NHS.Hats off to them.By any comparison grossly
underfunded.
August 30, 2026
Every time they divide jobs into smaller pieces and specialities more admin, more paper work,more waiting times there’s overall less efficiency.Managers don’t seem to understand this simple fact that more mini departments create more confusion,more unnecessary staff and longer waiting times.
Someone said to me many years ago that lots of cogs in the wheel doing a small thing creates a working engine..not so people are off sick have tempers ,emotions have slow days,don’t understand English nuancesetc etc.
August 31, 2026
These are all normal management issues. The fundamental problem is socialism. This means all these public services are designed to provide services to selected groups of people and not to others. It is inherently redistributive. Low productivity is the inevitable result as providers identify with their majority recipients, taking money off those who make least use of public services and focussing on the takers. There is no incentive to be efficient and productive because they are spending the money of people with whom they have no empathy and for whom they care not a jot.
August 31, 2026
Clearly the people who have been running this country since Thatcher was deposed have done a lousy job with the economy, but when did they ever face censure? The threat of losing power is certainly not enough to make them perform adequately, for our advantage.
MPs and others put themselves up for the top jobs knowing they are not up to it and fail to adapt to even the most basic economic lessons of the last 100 years. They put forward their irrational programs that depend more on ideology than considered logic and best practice. They should face penalties for making things so bad!
We need better quality MPs. It’s no longer enough to be vetted by a party’s machinery for criminality – we need to know they have some marbles and know how to use them. They must have potential as well as experience, but clearly they must have had a good British education.
Personally I would exclude anybody that admitted to being a socialist by nature, simply because this class of MPs has failed us so frequently, but also because so many of them hate the fact that Christianity was one of the things that made us great.
September 2, 2026
Hold people responsible without big payoffs and then contracts.
Follow Grace O’Malley Kumar’s campaigning dad, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, who fights for institutional and individual accountability. If these services were in the private sector, the government would bankrupt them and charge the directors.