'At Risk Of Failure'

Yesterday the government released at 5 to 5pm a document that proclaimed that virtually everything they are doing infrastructure and project wise is likely or going to fail. This is quite a worrying development considering what could happen.

The first problem with the all these projects failing is the cost. The governments flagship infrastructure project of HS2 is going way over budget (see http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/tony-robinson-stops-hs2.html and http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/weekly-poll-lowdown_16.html to view what I think about HS2). The government initially said that it would cost £17 billion, however this has not been accepted by the Public Accounts Committee and the Tax Payers Alliance has predicted HS2 to cost £45.5 billion. Matthew Sinclair, who is the Tax Payers Alliance CEO, says that "alarm bells will yet again be ringing for taxpayers". It has certainly got me concerned even more so when it is calculated that HS2 will be loss making for the economy. All that money wasted.

My thoughts exactly.

More worrying for me however is our national defence which is seemingly in jeopardy once again. The aircraft carriers that the government have promised to be built have been listed as red or 'unachievable' by this report. The decision to make sure we had no carrier defence was stupid in my opinion. We are too big a world power not to have one, we have to borrow the Charles De Gaulle if in need. But now it looks like we will never have one. Great. Worrying for me too is the fact that this project is going to cost about £7 billion; yet HS2 is costing over 5 times that amount. So effectively we have decided to trade national defence for the biggest waste of money ever. Very wise.  

HMS Argus was the world first aircraft carrier built in 1918. Less than 100 years later when still very much needed the carrier looks like its going to be extinct in the UK.

Everything is going under from the new passport control system to the universal credit benefit system. We are creaking as a nation at very best when it comes to government projects. So whose fault is this? Well partially it is the Governments, they have made some of the stupid decisions that could have probably been foreseen. But mostly it is ever inefficient and massively over paid Whitehall system. It is a lace where no one does any work, everyone receives a massive pension, no one does what minsters say and is secretly receiving a more than 3% increase in wages from George Osborne to keep them quiet. These great people are slowly destroying our country and yet we can do very little to stop it.

Whitehall is like entering into a world where money is plentiful and inefficiency is the order of the day.

So what is the case for the defence. Well Francis Maude has said that they have made £1.7 billion in efficiency savings so that the projects are not so costly. However, he must have forgotten all together governmental infrastructure cost £350 billion. That's just over a 0.4% saving which is truly pathetic. So it seems like all these projects Britain is 'at risk of failure' because of the incompetent people who we cannot get rid of at the helm. This time it's the civil service and not Lib Dem ministers. 

It's not all the fault of the Government. Even Dave isn't happy that Francis Maude isn't delivering on the civil service.

Parallel Universe

Sometimes I think some of the people who run the country don’t really know what is going on.

Today the PCS union voted for strike action by 61% with only 28% of the 250,000 members voted in the ballot. The Union now wants a 5% pay rise or £1,200 per member. Clearly the PCS are on the pulse of tough times and tighter budgets. Everyone is being squeezed and now they are demanding a massively above inflation pay rise.

Well pay rises are based on performance, if you improve productivity by quantity or quality you would reasonably except some sort of perk. So let’s examine how well the Civil Service has been doing. They've put a roadblock to every single education reform that they are obliged to implement. They've cut front line services and yet have kept, if not increased in some cases, their pensions. They are in active opposition to the government they are contractually obliged to serve. Also they aren't doing a great deal to help get the economy moving with all the extra red tape they add. There seems to be no real change in making the civil service better than it was before the coalition came into power.

So, although I appreciate everyone wants more money, they are demanding more when others are getting a cut. They’re lucky that they have a freeze (except for those working under £21,000) most people have their incomes slashed. Yes they are feeling the pinch, it’s called austerity. It’s necessary to save the country.

Also, if you’re a civil servant and you've chosen to strike because you want to stop government policy find another job. You are contractually obliged to implement government decisions. Fine give advice and have your own personal opinions but the minister/councillors run the show.

Its beggar’s belief that some civil servants can still think about a pre-recession world. No wonder they are out of touch, they are no way accountable to anyone.

Out, Out, Out

Unless you have taken up residence on Mars you would have heard that David Cameron is offering a referendum on the EU in 2017 if the Conservatives get elected. I’m going to explore a few facts about this and then say why I am advocating an Out vote.

David Cameron has not done this because he genuinely wants a huge renegotiation of European powers it is because, like with everything he does, he is being fairly pragmatic. David Cameron believes that the occasional policy from the EU is a bit wacky but that we should stay in. Whatever he gets after these rounds of negotiation he will still advocate staying in, even if it’s nearly nothing. Cameron has called this referendum because he realises that if he doesn't he’d personally be destroyed by 2015, even if the Conservatives do win the next general election, he is likely replaced as leader. Cameron is not the new Thatcher bravely tackling a European super-state, he is someone with no other option. But what matters most is not his reasoning but the fact we will get a say.

I will now tell you why I’m advocating an Out vote and I will do this, at first, by saying what Cameron would have to do to change my mind.

1) A veto on every single new law that is made by Brussels. Most of these do not suit the UK and are taking up to 40% of government time to implement.

2) Abolition of the CAP.

This has been a coup for inefficient French and southern Italian farming wrecking any market forces left in the agriculture sector. It is bad for the industry and gets worse every time food prices increase. Not good for the cost of living and also for those in other parts of the world who sadly are starving due to high food prices.

3) Increase in the British Rebate. We used to have a lot more till Tony Blair gave most of it away.

4) Revision of the common fisheries policy. Why throw away dead, edible and economicly worthwhile fish for no good reason.

5) No President of the EU. I’d team this with an overall growth in democracy in the Union.

6) No single market. Sadly the single market is not a single market with free trade but a protectionist union. With the exception of Germany and Holland, the European economy and market is shrinking. We have no free trade with the USA or emerging markets for goodness sakes.

7) Control of immigration to be brought back to the UK. I'm not like some people who are concerned about foreign people and foreign values invading Britain and all that nonsense. People from across the World and Europe coming to Britain add massively to our economy. Sadly though our economy is still too much led by government which means mass migration effects local services negatively. Not good.

If I have missed anything glaring out I do apologise. Also where applicable I’d like to see these policies applied to the rest of Europe for a more free market and more democratic World.

Mr Cameron will not come close to most of these. I don't think he will personally want most of this. Also the EU will not let these powers go and give the Prime Minister a pittance in attempt to placate his rather small stomach.

But most importantly the British Foreign Office will not have it. There is no desire in the civil service to leave the EU. This is mostly because a large chunk of their jobs depend on Europe but also because they are politically set against leaving. Almost everyone in the Foreign Office tried to stop Margaret Thatcher the rebate from the ECC. If it wasn't for her personal drive she wouldn't have got anything. Indeed it could be said that Thatcher never achieved the full £1 Billion she was after because of the trenchant struggle of the Foreign Office officials.

This is why I advocate Out. David Cameron will not get enough of what is needed. 

Behind Closed Doors

What is going on with the civil service at the moment? There have been in the last week several stories about a so called ‘war’ between Whitehall and Ministers. Ministers are complaining that bureaucrats are deliberately changing or stopping legislation, which I don't think is in the job description of civil servants. Well YouGov have asked a set of questions to the public about what they think about this battle taking place. From the results it seems Yes Prime Minister or the Thick of It is viewed as a documentary with 40% of people believing that civil servants have too much power, 43% think that civil servants deliberately stop government legislation because they don’t agree with it and 48% believe they are too resistant to change.

However, is this the case? Has the Thick of It become so much a part of the public’s subconscious that it is viewed as true? Are civil servants actually doing what they want? Steve Hilton, who left No10 as Cameron’s advisor last year, believes that British ‘bureaucracy masters the politicians’ stopping or changing policy decisions which the PM doesn’t know about until he reads them in the papers over his toast. This includes government policy about reforming the civil service which is just being started. Lord O’Donnell, the former Cabinet Secretary recently said that ‘reforming the civil service comes quite a way down my list of priorities’; despite civil service reform being a government priority which the independent civil service think tank the Institute of Government and Tony Blair backs.

It does seem that the demos of Britain have hit the nail on the head then.