A useful insight into the problem

From Kate Bingham, the only person to have done something successfully in recent years through governance - largely, by not being like government - a useful description of the basic problem:

Bingham also revealed frustrations with Whitehall, noting no one within BEIS had relevant expertise when she arrived, and criticised “groupthink” within government.

“And, more importantly, no one’s ever done anything. They’re all busy writing policy papers and sending each other stuff to review. None of that actually gets to the heart of what it is they’re trying to do. What are they trying to achieve? And are they measured against the delivery of their goals? And the answer is no,” she said.

“In the private sector, you don’t deliver your goals, you’re out of a job, and you have to move on. And in the private sector, you get referenced, and if you don’t perform, people know about that. That is not the way it works in the civil service.”

That largely puts the kybosh on Mazzonomics of course. But then we knew that.

It could be worse though, could be much worse. Imagine if people like this actually did try to do something?

The only useful answer therefore is fewer governors and less governance. Save those powers, that money, for when something really, really, needs to be done and then get in someone from outside to do it.

That’s settled then and the only useful question left is to ask why Dame Catherine is not already Viscountess Cincinnatus?

Tim Worstall