The Starmer Years - Can The New Broom Sweep Clean?

[Farmer Saint]

Glad to see I'm still living rent free in  @Weston Super Saint head...

 

[Weston Super Saint]

1 minute ago, Sir Ralph said:

I forgot about that - You mean this one? 

Yep, that's the one.

Must have been missing you 😘

[Sir Ralph]

1 minute ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Yep, that's the one.

Must have been missing you 😘

I feel privileged to be off his hit list - it’s a big day for me. 😆

[badgerx16]

Local Government has been 'squeezed' financially for the last 15 years, how much more waste and inefficiency do people think there is ?

[Farmer Saint]

25 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

Local Government has been 'squeezed' financially for the last 15 years, how much more waste and inefficiency do people think there is ?

There is probably quite a lot, but it's the opportunity cost of more resources and a better service vs operational inefficiencies.

I see @Sir Ralph is struggling with the question I asked him. Just a list Ralph, that's all I want. Don't need justifications.

Edited 7 hours ago by Farmer Saint

[whelk]

48 minutes ago, Sir Ralph said:

Well they are about to balls things up so I suspect at some point somebody will have to cut public services again (whether this government or the next one) to fix the problems Labour hasn’t created. 
 

The issue is they haven’t really even tried to address the inefficiencies. They have just massively increased day to day public sector spending. It’s like taking over a company, seeing there are inefficiencies but just giving the business more money to significantly increase wages, without really tackling the inefficiencies.

I’m happy to pay more tax if the government isn’t just going to waste it. Currently there is too much waste and Labour hasn’t addressed it. To busy hoping that taxing businesses and rich people will be politically more popular.

You say selfish I say sensible. If you already pay multiples in tax compared to  the average citizen and keep being asked to pay more. Leave until you have a more friendly government. Why spend half your day working for the government to take it and waste it. But that’s all rubbish anyway because nobody is leaving and the economy is booming!

Wes Streeting is doing more to address than previous Health ministers but feels like you don’t do any detail or research widely jsut entrenched view of ‘Labour will always do this… ‘ There are people willing to feed you information that all taxes are wasted always - you like to talk about echo chambers but it doesn’t feel like you get your information and opinions challenged - Saintweb excepted.

Honestly it is laughable that you think just by saying inefficiencies you have some sort of solution in asking why are these not addressed. That has been the constant mantra for 20 years. I actually agree it isn’t a case of throwing cash into money pits with no change in approach. But it isn’t simple to address,  although no doubt some Tufton Street consultant will suggest cutting out free NHS cancer care to children. Not too far fetched as similar was suggested to Truss when she needlessly broke the economy.
 

 

 

[whelk]

36 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

Local Government has been 'squeezed' financially for the last 15 years, how much more waste and inefficiency do people think there is ?

also these places lose good people as feel no positive future having to ‘do more with less’. Some of the social care recruits would have never got jobs previously so inadvertently de-skilled the sector too.

Going to waste billions restructuring it as well with break even date of 2085.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by whelk

[Sir Ralph]

7 minutes ago, whelk said:

Wes Streeting is doing more to address than previous Health ministers but feels like you don’t do any detail or research widely jsut entrenched view of ‘Labour will always do this… ‘ There are people willing to feed you information that all taxes are wasted always - you like to talk about echo chambers but it doesn’t feel like you get your information and opinions challenged - Saintweb excepted.

Honestly it is laughable that you think just by saying inefficiencies you have some sort of solution in asking why are these not addressed. That has been the constant mantra for 20 years. I actually agree it isn’t a case of throwing cash into money pits with no change in approach. But it isn’t simple to address,  although no doubt some Tufton Street consultant will suggest cutting out free NHS cancer care to children. Not too far fetched as similar was suggested to Truss when she needlessly broke the economy.
 

 

 

I agree with you Wes Sweeting is doing a good job and I rate him. I also agree with much of what you just said. I dont think its a simple case of just cutting everything but I dont think Labour has got the balance right which was reflected in its significant increase in spending without making some of the hard decisions. Predictably this is now what is causing the problems we are witnessing now.

We all also speak from our experience. Whilst I work in the private sector, I also work alongside the public sector in some instances and I see inefficiencies and unnecessary beau acracy which informs my views.

Edited 6 hours ago by Sir Ralph

[badgerx16]

17 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

There is probably quite a lot, but it's the opportunity cost of more resources and a better service vs operational inefficiencies.

.

I was cut in the third round of staff reductions in 5 years, an exercise in specifically reducing head count. Almost all of the duties I was carrying out had to be outsourced as there was nobody internal capable of doing them, and net, therefore, there was zero cost saving.

[Farmer Saint]

37 minutes ago, Sir Ralph said:

I agree with you Wes Sweeting is doing a good job and I rate him. I also agree with much of what you just said. I dont think its a simple case of just cutting everything but I dont think Labour has got the balance right which was reflected in its significant increase in spending without making some of the hard decisions. Predictably this is now what is causing the problems we are witnessing now.

We all also speak from our experience. Whilst I work in the private sector, I also work alongside the public sector in some instances and I see inefficiencies and unnecessary beau acracy which informs my views.

What examples do you have of inefficiencies and unnecessary bureaucracy in the public equivalent of your industry?

[badgerx16]

3 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

What examples do you have of inefficiencies and unnecessary bureaucracy in the public equivalent of your industry?

In my experience, a lot of external 'experts' brought in to implement new IT systems were no more capable than our internal staff, they were just better paid and less overworked.

Edited 6 hours ago by badgerx16

[whelk]

39 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

I was cut in the third round of staff reductions in 5 years, an exercise in specifically reducing head count. Almost all of the duties I was carrying out had to be outsourced as there was nobody internal capable of doing them, and net, therefore, there was zero cost saving.

And if one thing outsourcers are good at it is fleecing the public purse

Edited 6 hours ago by whelk

[badgerx16]

11 minutes ago, whelk said:

And if one thing outsourcers are good at it is fleecing the public purse

But they are more efficient, apparently.

[whelk]

3 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

But they are more efficient, apparently.

The management who initiate are rarely around to take the consequences either - so much short-termism in organisations and often lack the wisdom to question the folly (often) of stupid decisions 

[Whitey Grandad]

22 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

But they are more efficient, apparently.

They fleece it more efficiently. 

[Weston Super Saint]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

They fleece it more efficiently. 

Trouble is, it's not even the 'good' contract workers as the public sector contractors typically get paid about 20% less than private sector. So you end up paying more for sometimes less capability.