Comments on: Mr Miliband gets it wrong - and is locked in http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/ Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Wokingham Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:21:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Mental Nurse / John Redwood MP http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-22121 Mental Nurse / John Redwood MP Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:13:00 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-22121 [...] his current post on Milband’s travails he makes what I think are a number of telling and intelligent points about [...] [...] his current post on Milband’s travails he makes what I think are a number of telling and intelligent points about [...]

]]> By: Alfred T Mahan http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19440 Alfred T Mahan Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:27:05 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19440 All organizations resemble organisms, and like living things require some external pressure or predator to change - to adapt for survival. The market provides this for commercial businesses, but government bureaucracies (and to a lesser extent charities) don't have any such mechanism. This is commonly demonstrated when a war starts - the absence of a predator for the armed forces in time of peace results in inappropriate policies and promotions, which have to be reversed when hostilities commence. The closest approach to such a predator for the general civil service is politicians acting under voter pressure. Unfortunately, statist parties, or those controlled by producer interests (step forward the Labour Party), don't understand this and are doomed to failure in their attempts to conjure greater efficiency out of a wheezing system. It will never work, just as the prolonged absence of a predator ultimately caused the extinction of the Dodo when it was unable to react to new circumstances. The only solution is reduce the role of any part of the state where some such predator is absent to the bare minimum. Obviously there are limits as not all essential state activity can be made subject to such pressures (so there is a job for politicians after all!), but even starting in that direction requires a massive effort to overturn entrenched interests. It would be encouraging if there were any evidence that Messrs Cameron and Osborne understand this, but I have yet to see it. All organizations resemble organisms, and like living things require some external pressure or predator to change - to adapt for survival. The market provides this for commercial businesses, but government bureaucracies (and to a lesser extent charities) don’t have any such mechanism. This is commonly demonstrated when a war starts - the absence of a predator for the armed forces in time of peace results in inappropriate policies and promotions, which have to be reversed when hostilities commence. The closest approach to such a predator for the general civil service is politicians acting under voter pressure. Unfortunately, statist parties, or those controlled by producer interests (step forward the Labour Party), don’t understand this and are doomed to failure in their attempts to conjure greater efficiency out of a wheezing system. It will never work, just as the prolonged absence of a predator ultimately caused the extinction of the Dodo when it was unable to react to new circumstances. The only solution is reduce the role of any part of the state where some such predator is absent to the bare minimum. Obviously there are limits as not all essential state activity can be made subject to such pressures (so there is a job for politicians after all!), but even starting in that direction requires a massive effort to overturn entrenched interests. It would be encouraging if there were any evidence that Messrs Cameron and Osborne understand this, but I have yet to see it.

]]> By: michael dearden http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19397 michael dearden Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:50:59 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19397 I don't suppose that Mathew Reynolds would consider mounting a coup? It is very unusual to read something from anyone in these replies that actually makes sense. But there's the rub, politicians are not renown for their sensibilities. I too caught the Redwood Freudian slip, "rulers" eh! Well at least we know where we stand if Mr Redwood comes to power. I don’t suppose that Mathew Reynolds would consider mounting a coup? It is very unusual to read something from anyone in these replies that actually makes sense. But there’s the rub, politicians are not renown for their sensibilities. I too caught the Redwood Freudian slip, “rulers” eh! Well at least we know where we stand if Mr Redwood comes to power.

]]> By: APL http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19383 APL Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:48:57 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19383 Mikestallard: "They are, apparently, pressurizing the elite round Gordon Brown to do something fast so that they won’t lose their jobs at the next election and become unemployable." Don't worry, these people are the cream of the crop. They keep telling us they need to be paid commensurate with their abilities, and in line with a CEO of a large private company. Let them leave Parliament and walk into a private sector job in full expectation of a pay rise to boot. Stuart Fairney: “No-one earning less than say £10,000 need pay any tax at all” How sensible, this is not the 17th century, £10,000 is a pittance. Stuart Fairney: "Can we have mandatory retrospective sunset clauses.." This is exactly what the Tories used to do with their anti terrorism acts, it was (as I understand it) necessary to debate and renew each year. None of the ratcheting of ever more intrusive and ineffectual measures we see today. In terms of Quangos, just close them down, what on earth is the british council for? Other than a sinecure for a failed rather chippie leader of the opposition, as if he hasn't grown plump enough living off the fat of the Euro Land. Mikestallard: “They are, apparently, pressurizing the elite round Gordon Brown to do something fast so that they won’t lose their jobs at the next election and become unemployable.”

Don’t worry, these people are the cream of the crop. They keep telling us they need to be paid commensurate with their abilities, and in line with a CEO of a large private company. Let them leave Parliament and walk into a private sector job in full expectation of a pay rise to boot.

Stuart Fairney: “No-one earning less than say £10,000 need pay any tax at all”

How sensible, this is not the 17th century, £10,000 is a pittance.

Stuart Fairney: “Can we have mandatory retrospective sunset clauses..”

This is exactly what the Tories used to do with their anti terrorism acts, it was (as I understand it) necessary to debate and renew each year. None of the ratcheting of ever more intrusive and ineffectual measures we see today.

In terms of Quangos, just close them down, what on earth is the british council for? Other than a sinecure for a failed rather chippie leader of the opposition, as if he hasn’t grown plump enough living off the fat of the Euro Land.

]]> By: mikestallard http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19376 mikestallard Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:47:50 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19376 According to the Telegraph today, the Labour people on the back benches are realising, when they do the rounds, that people are angry about being unfairly taxed and angry about not getting the goods they think they were promised. And that is in Northern Constituencies too. They are, apparently, pressurizing the elite round Gordon Brown to do something fast so that they won't lose their jobs at the next election and become unemployable. Apparently they are talking to the hand. He neither listens nor does anything. Because he chose a team of yes men and women at the beginning of his ministry, and because he has silenced parliament and the cabinet, he has no means of testing his ideas or even of finding out if his administration is actually working at all. He is working blind. I do not expect any change therefore. I also expect that he will be gone in the very near future. According to the Telegraph today, the Labour people on the back benches are realising, when they do the rounds, that people are angry about being unfairly taxed and angry about not getting the goods they think they were promised. And that is in Northern Constituencies too.
They are, apparently, pressurizing the elite round Gordon Brown to do something fast so that they won’t lose their jobs at the next election and become unemployable.
Apparently they are talking to the hand. He neither listens nor does anything. Because he chose a team of yes men and women at the beginning of his ministry, and because he has silenced parliament and the cabinet, he has no means of testing his ideas or even of finding out if his administration is actually working at all.
He is working blind.

I do not expect any change therefore. I also expect that he will be gone in the very near future.

]]> By: Matthew Reynolds http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19374 Matthew Reynolds Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:14:32 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19374 What we need is to get the cash following the service user in schools & hospitals so that new providers are encouraged while good schools can expand while the NHS has to raise its game or face losing money to the private sector . Elected police chief's would be good as they would have to focus on tackling crime rather than social engineering with waste on red tape being slashed as more police went on the beat . There should be companies raising private funds to build roads that they can charge tolls on to make a profit and fund repairs and private providers ought to compete with eachother over who can get the most jobless people back into work in exchange for public money . Job Seekers Allowance & Incapacity Benefit can be merged so that economic inactivity is slashed and money saved . A Citizenship Pension can replace the various payments for OAP's thus slashing admin costs and poverty while a bigger personal allowance can replace complex tax credits with the same objectives in mind . More defence contracts can go onto the open market to improve hardware & save money while extra defence spending is conditional on MOD civil service numbers being cut year on year . QUANGO's need cutting - univeristies are for education not social engineering . For the sake of democratic accountability local councils need the power to improve things - meaning no QUANGO's or Communities Department . After Devolution in Wales , Scotland and Ulster and with a sovereign Parliament do we really need Welsh , Scottish , Northern Irish or Constitutional Affairs Secretaries of State ? The money spent on regulating private business could be given as a fixed item of expenditure to each department of state to be slashed year on year - thus saving money and giving a real incentive to government ministers to cut red tape as there is less money to over regulate the economy . Housing Benefit is just a rip off on the taxpayer by crafty landlords and why not slash red tape & rail subisidies while re-uniting track & train while linking public funds to greater choice & competition ? LEA's & health authorities should be just voucher issuers with the expenditure on those QUANGO's cut by at least 80% as vouchers move money to the frontline as providers have to compete for funds ? Why waste money on agriculture in a way that causes poverty in The Third World and why spend overseas aid resources on China of all places ? A Citizenship Pension would cost extra money overall but reforms to JSA , IB & HB could help meet the cost and pledging to send less money to Brussels to fund wiping out pensioner poverty is hardly a vote loser is it ? If you want smaller government then these ideas might just get us there . The waste & lack of democracy in the EU prove that it deserves less public money . My plan would help produce vast savings - private business create jobs - the failed New Deal does not . Likewise tackling family breakdown will in time save money . This large batch of reforms could stop the public sector being so greedy for our money and in the longer term pave the way for lower taxes , a balanced budget and a smaller state i.e. the UK becoming an Eire style success story with less poverty & red tape and democracy being the stronger as power moves to the localities and public services improve . What we need is to get the cash following the service user in schools & hospitals so that new providers are encouraged while good schools can expand while the NHS has to raise its game or face losing money to the private sector . Elected police chief’s would be good as they would have to focus on tackling crime rather than social engineering with waste on red tape being slashed as more police went on the beat . There should be companies raising private funds to build roads that they can charge tolls on to make a profit and fund repairs and private providers ought to compete with eachother over who can get the most jobless people back into work in exchange for public money . Job Seekers Allowance & Incapacity Benefit can be merged so that economic inactivity is slashed and money saved . A Citizenship Pension can replace the various payments for OAP’s thus slashing admin costs and poverty while a bigger personal allowance can replace complex tax credits with the same objectives in mind . More defence contracts can go onto the open market to improve hardware & save money while extra defence spending is conditional on MOD civil service numbers being cut year on year . QUANGO’s need cutting - univeristies are for education not social engineering . For the sake of democratic accountability local councils need the power to improve things - meaning no QUANGO’s or Communities Department . After Devolution in Wales , Scotland and Ulster and with a sovereign Parliament do we really need Welsh , Scottish , Northern Irish or Constitutional Affairs Secretaries of State ? The money spent on regulating private business could be given as a fixed item of expenditure to each department of state to be slashed year on year - thus saving money and giving a real incentive to government ministers to cut red tape as there is less money to over regulate the economy . Housing Benefit is just a rip off on the taxpayer by crafty landlords and why not slash red tape & rail subisidies while re-uniting track & train while linking public funds to greater choice & competition ? LEA’s & health authorities should be just voucher issuers with the expenditure on those QUANGO’s cut by at least 80% as vouchers move money to the frontline as providers have to compete for funds ? Why waste money on agriculture in a way that causes poverty in The Third World and why spend overseas aid resources on China of all places ? A Citizenship Pension would cost extra money overall but reforms to JSA , IB & HB could help meet the cost and pledging to send less money to Brussels to fund wiping out pensioner poverty is hardly a vote loser is it ? If you want smaller government then these ideas might just get us there . The waste & lack of democracy in the EU prove that it deserves less public money . My plan would help produce vast savings - private business create jobs - the failed New Deal does not . Likewise tackling family breakdown will in time save money . This large batch of reforms could stop the public sector being so greedy for our money and in the longer term pave the way for lower taxes , a balanced budget and a smaller state i.e. the UK becoming an Eire style success story with less poverty & red tape and democracy being the stronger as power moves to the localities and public services improve .

]]> By: Steven_L http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19373 Steven_L Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:08:50 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19373 I think it is a normal cycle of events in both public and private organisations that ineffective middle-management bureaucracies build up over time. I've seen it in the private sector where large social cliques of people who get all the perks but do very little work develop. They will be given guaranteed bonus's even though they do very little selling. They will sit around in offices having pointless meetings or learning new ways to sterotype the workforce into x's and y's or suchlike. They quickly become removed from reality, preferring to sing in harmony from the approved hymnsheet and label any objective criticism of their decisions as negative. The only way to get on and do your job is often to ignore their silly dictats and use your initiative. As long as all the stats are in the right place at the end of the day and they don't have to do any work they usually ignore the fact you are not following their latest bright idea. In the public sector, these middle-management bureaucracies have been building up for a long time now. Their allies, policy people, churn out reams of pointless documentation that hardly anyone one ever reads or cares about. Of course all of these policies contradict one another and everyone thinks their area is more important than everyone elses. As long as they are allowed to sit in their meetings and build their CV's up another level they don't really know or care if anyone is doing things they way they want or the same way they've been doing it for the last twenty years. The central control point is an issue for councillors to address, they have to have the initiative to find out what central influences there are upon the council and insist that they take a part in deciding what is prioritised. It is very difficult for senior managers to say no to an elected member with a remit over a particular area of local government. If councillors take the back seat central control and the personal opinions of non-elected senior officers will always win the day. I think it is a normal cycle of events in both public and private organisations that ineffective middle-management bureaucracies build up over time. I’ve seen it in the private sector where large social cliques of people who get all the perks but do very little work develop. They will be given guaranteed bonus’s even though they do very little selling. They will sit around in offices having pointless meetings or learning new ways to sterotype the workforce into x’s and y’s or suchlike. They quickly become removed from reality, preferring to sing in harmony from the approved hymnsheet and label any objective criticism of their decisions as negative. The only way to get on and do your job is often to ignore their silly dictats and use your initiative. As long as all the stats are in the right place at the end of the day and they don’t have to do any work they usually ignore the fact you are not following their latest bright idea.

In the public sector, these middle-management bureaucracies have been building up for a long time now. Their allies, policy people, churn out reams of pointless documentation that hardly anyone one ever reads or cares about. Of course all of these policies contradict one another and everyone thinks their area is more important than everyone elses. As long as they are allowed to sit in their meetings and build their CV’s up another level they don’t really know or care if anyone is doing things they way they want or the same way they’ve been doing it for the last twenty years.

The central control point is an issue for councillors to address, they have to have the initiative to find out what central influences there are upon the council and insist that they take a part in deciding what is prioritised. It is very difficult for senior managers to say no to an elected member with a remit over a particular area of local government. If councillors take the back seat central control and the personal opinions of non-elected senior officers will always win the day.

]]> By: Stuart Fairney http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19365 Stuart Fairney Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:46:53 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19365 And JR, if I can be forgiven for a second post, where is Osborne? In the midst of the biggest financial disaster to befall the government for a quarter of a century he is invisible! I am sick of seeing Vince Cable as the voice of the opposition, why not be bold and say "No-one earning less than say £10,000 need pay any tax at all" Weasel words about 'looking at the books' when you get in to power are not what is required now. The electors need vision and poor old George looks like a man scared of his own shadow. And JR, if I can be forgiven for a second post, where is Osborne? In the midst of the biggest financial disaster to befall the government for a quarter of a century he is invisible! I am sick of seeing Vince Cable as the voice of the opposition, why not be bold and say “No-one earning less than say £10,000 need pay any tax at all”

Weasel words about ‘looking at the books’ when you get in to power are not what is required now. The electors need vision and poor old George looks like a man scared of his own shadow.

]]> By: Stuart Fairney http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19364 Stuart Fairney Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:36:38 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19364 Can we have mandatory retrospective sunset clauses on all public bodies please? In two minutes looking at just one government department I was able to discover the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, the Environmental Stewardship Scheme, the Energy Crops Scheme, well I could go on, check this link http://www.defra.gov.uk/funding/schemes/index.htm This system doesn't need a review it needs a complete abolition. As ever, does "Dave" have the stomach for it? Can we have mandatory retrospective sunset clauses on all public bodies please? In two minutes looking at just one government department I was able to discover the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, the Environmental Stewardship Scheme, the Energy Crops Scheme, well I could go on, check this link

http://www.defra.gov.uk/funding/schemes/index.htm

This system doesn’t need a review it needs a complete abolition. As ever, does “Dave” have the stomach for it?

]]> By: APL http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19362 APL Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:35:32 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/20/mr-miliband-gets-it-wrong-and-is-stitched-up/#comment-19362 JR: "The Conservative party under Thatcher was deeply split between dries and wets.." Yes, and the wets preferred to destroy the party than continue in power with a right of centre leader. Why is it that over the last ten years, no wets have been expelled from the Tory party? JR: "The electorate will accept some public debate .." The problem is Mr Redwood, debate in politics has been surpressed for so long, the public sees this monolithic edefice as the norm. They would accept public debate in politics if there was anyone in the political parties willing to make it a normal part of political life again! As soon as someone pops up to open a discussion on issues that are of real concern to the public, they are expelled from the party. JR: "within the ruling party..." Well, there you are, 'out of the mouths of babes and sucklings' - 'RULING PARTY' - not governing party mind you. When even someone like John Redwood speaks in such terms where now, is the difference between the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe? Other than the state of the economy - and Gordon Brown, our glorious leader and former finance supremo (he of no more boom and bust) has fixed that too. JR: “The Conservative party under Thatcher was deeply split between dries and wets..”

Yes, and the wets preferred to destroy the party than continue in power with a right of centre leader. Why is it that over the last ten years, no wets have been expelled from the Tory party?

JR: “The electorate will accept some public debate ..”

The problem is Mr Redwood, debate in politics has been surpressed for so long, the public sees this monolithic edefice as the norm. They would accept public debate in politics if there was anyone in the political parties willing to make it a normal part of political life again!

As soon as someone pops up to open a discussion on issues that are of real concern to the public, they are expelled from the party.

JR: “within the ruling party…”

Well, there you are, ‘out of the mouths of babes and sucklings’ - ‘RULING PARTY’ - not governing party mind you. When even someone like John Redwood speaks in such terms where now, is the difference between the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe? Other than the state of the economy - and Gordon Brown, our glorious leader and former finance supremo (he of no more boom and bust) has fixed that too.

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