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| | among commentators on
the left. Not only do
they not have a problem
with the country being
led for three years by
an unelected PM, they
are also very
comfortable with the
idea that he will
jettison most of the
programme and principles
on which the last
election was won. Here’s
Polly Toynbee from the
Guardian: “Expect Him to
try to re-establish a
firm red line between
the culture of the
private sector and the
culture of public
service. It won't be
easy. The two have
blended together,
instead of the public
realm being insulated
from commerce. Civil
servants are distressed
by management
consultants selling them
the same bottle of used
snake oil for
preposterous fees; or
they gasp with envy at
the sums paid to
business moguls called
in to run government
functions.”
OK, it was me that
capitalised the “Him”
but I think it works
better with the muddled
metaphors and tone of
the piece, which sees
Gordon sweeping down
biblically to cleanse
the temple of public
service from the evils
of the private sector. I | |
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| | also particularly liked
the “same bottle of used
snake oil” phrase, and
urge all consultants to
make sure they only use
fresh snake oil from an
unopened bottle in
future public sector
work.
What a wonderful
prospect, a public
sector free of the
contaminating germs of
private sector culture.
They’ll probably go back
to keeping important
bits of paper on metal
spikes rather than
storing data in horrid
computers.
More seriously, what
this approach would rule
out is the current
remedial work being
carried out by Big Four
firms on NHS finances.
To recap, following
Government commitments
which will nearly treble
NHS spending compared to
when it came into
office, NHS finances are
in dire straits. A
projected £620m deficit
is now more like £790m
and KPMG hit squads put
in last December found
that around a fifth of
primary care trusts were
in serious financial
difficulties. I’m not
sure where all the money
has gone, but the phrase
“inflation-proofing NHS
pensions” did crop up in
my investigations, which
must be some consolation
to NHS chief exec Sir | |
|
| | Nigel Clear, who is
taking early retirement
(“not everything has
gone well”).
Now the Big Four are
happily mopping up the
turnaround work and why?
Because, according to
NHS FD Richard Douglas,
the KPMG report revealed
that “the capability of
the management was
inadequate to deal with
challenges of their
current financial
position”. This chimes
in neatly with the
findings of a recent MCA
survey of both public
and private sector
managers in which 70%
said consultants were
important because they
gave them “access to
specific skills not
available internally”.
Of course, He will put a
stop to all that for the
public sector managers,
widening yet further the
deficit of public sector
productivity growth
compared to the private
sector, meaning an
ever-increasing tax just
to keep up.
Even those private
sector firms who eschew
consultancy can often
hire their way out of a
skills and knowledge
gap. But the
salary-light,
pension-heavy reward
structure of the public
sector militates against
any meaningful
interchange of staff | |
|
| | with the grubby world of
“commerce”. Nor can the
public sector gaily
traipse off to India to
hire the cream of its
business graduates for
buttons: its back office
posts are ring-fenced
for shambling
malcontents guarded by
Unison officials
growling “them thurr be
Wes Mincer jobs”. Now
I’m not arguing that
every public sector job
should be shipped off to
Bangalore so I can spend
my council tax on
holidays in the
Caribbean (not today,
anyway). I’d prefer at
least a “shape-up or
ship out” option. But
even I would feel that
it would be extremely
unfair if He were to cut
the public sector off
from the very expertise
it desperately needs to
clean its act up.
I realise I’m being
very unfair in all this
to Gordon Brown, who,
despite his many
failings, couldn’t be
even half as bad a PM as
his acolytes fondly hope
he will be. And, like
Godot, of course, He may
not turn up at all.
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