Wednesday 7 March 2012

Forgive them, they know not what they do (or how to do it)

"Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage." H. L. Mencken
Two news items, which would appear to lend credence to the above statement, appeared yesterday in the Daily Telegraph. First, an article by James Blunt (who, I understand, is an English singer-songwriter and musician, and former army officer) on his trials and tribulations whilst attempting to get to Afghanistan on a morale-boosting visit to the troops.  With regard to the first article, this is the last report that I can find by the Defence Committee (points 92-93) in which the question about delays in ferrying personnel to and from Afghanistan is mentioned, to which the Government responded here. It is worth remembering that it was less than two years ago that articles appeared relating how returning troops were paying their own way home due to problems with RAF aircraft.


Second, an article that informs us Whitehall departments have spent £1.4 billion in an attempt to save £159  million by sharing “back-office’’ functions such as personnel and procurement. Only last month we were informed that senior civil servants are being sent to "leadership school" amid concerns they do not have the skills to run major projects like the Olympics, welfare reforms and new high-speed trains. It seems that asked why civil servants do not already have the skills to run major projects, Francis Maude replied that there is a question over that and that most of the people at the top are the right sort of people for the job, but there’s a gap in skills. Never mind the civil servants, Maude, it would perhaps help were politicians to look in a mirror.


Such a cavalier attitude with public money can only be described as a disgrace - 'Referism' anyone?


7 comments:

Captain Ranty said...

Referism?, could you expand on that please.

Woodsy42 said...

Amazing doublethink from Maude isn't it. They are the 'right sort of people' but don't have the skills - try and explain that to any private company hiring employees where by definition the right skills define the people employed!

Sean O'Hare said...

snivel serpents sent to "leadership school"? They wouldn't be run by Common Purpose by any chance?

Bandit 1 said...

£1.4 BILLION spent in an attempt to save £159 million. Only in the f**king public f**king sector.

Referism can't come soon enough.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

CR: I refrain from responding as I don't know it that is you or your dopple(ganger)prat........

W42: Exactly!

SO'H: Of course they are!

B1: Pleased to see you accept referism - and presumably DD!

Bandit 1 said...

Oh, absolutely - Richard North on EURef is 100% correct in stating that:

a) what we have at present is manifestly NOT democracy but an elective dictatorship. The wild and damaging excesses of the state would be stamped out by the exercising of real power by we the people, via control of the state's budget (e.g. OUR money).

b) when people are given responsibility they rise to the challenge. Direct democracy is the only way for an allegedly advanced country in the 21st century to be organised.

We need to take power from the professional political class and bring the country from the C19 into the present.

TomTom said...

spent £1.4 billion in an attempt to save £159  million

I like the sound of £1,400,000,000 and would love to be on the receiving end even in small parcels....someone somewhere is doing very nicely thank you. I wonder if any of it finds its way back into Conservative Party funds ?


Politics is such fun. Rather be seen as incompetent than corrupt. Just as Private Eye reported in 1990s Norris Sr. and Investigating (Corrupt) Detective were Masons and cover up was in place. Instead the Met and Jack Straw preferred "Institutional Racism" as a verdict to "Institutional Corruption" so Macpherson turns the entire society upside down to protect Corruption in the Met and Politics.

Then, 20 years later Corruption is allowed to emerge into the light of day as the cause of the problem.....who has died ? who has retired ?

Oh, and which one of them must die before we find the truth about: -

Dr David Kelly ?
Iraq War ?
Snatch Landrovers ?
HBOS and Andy Hornby ?
RBS and Fred Goodwin ?
Lloyds TSB and Victor Blank ?
Deripaska and Osborne ?

and just who it is that stops the Media mentioning:

a) widespread public sector strikes in Germany ongoing
b) Goldman Sachs $5.1 billion scam in Greece
c) Criticism of Banksters
d) Occupy
e) the situation in Libya
f) Women's Day and Rights in Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Iraq versus say Syria
g) why the SEcular regimes in the MIddle East are being toppled to please Saudi Arabia