~ unforseeable and unprecedented
~ outside the remit of the job
~ unable to act quickly and freely because of
~ getting on with the job, (seem to have heard that one elsewhere recently)
~ don’t receive the same remuneration as private sector, ergo different standards

or any combination of the above (assuming there are even such calls, I have heard none as yet. If this was a private company the Beeb would be howling from the rooftops of course).

The thing I find surprising is that all this information was in the public domain yet still Councils, Police Forces and Charities were piling money into these banks. I wonder who got the comissions paid by the banks for bringing the business to them.

Then I heard some arrogant jobsworth from the Local Government Association saying that Government must bail them out or Council Taxes will have to rise. That summed it all up for me. The pure arrogance of the public sector, awash with cash, splashing it around at the behest of some advisor when 5 minutes on Google would tell them that’s a bad idea then telling us we must foot the bill when they get it wrong. All along, especially in the case of Police Forces, pleading poverty while splashing out on luxury cars for officers to swan around in whilst handing out fines to us. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.

I have always thought until recently that the public services in this country were fundamentally decent but my view has changed. There seems to be a deep rooted (problem -ed) that afflicts every aspect of the public sector. The whole lot of them on the take, the arrogance and disdain for those they are supposed to serve, the mega salaries, the self righteous preaching, the expenses, the pensions, the “one law for us” approach, the bans, the fines, the spying, the lying and the oh-so-public manifestation of all this, the flash, top of the range 4×4 while they tell us to reduce our carbon footprint (the Police and Highways Agency are by far the worst for this), even the Ambulance Service are driving around in Jags. Worse still is that it seems to be a cross party conspiracy against the voters with no party prepared to reign in this profligate spending. (The public sector executive heads -ed), so arrogant, they cannot even contemplate that they may have made a mistake, it’s always someone elses fault.

I see little hope for the future, there is no one around with the will to put an end to all this. Cameron might talk a good job but he does nothing about the Tory Councils who are amongst the worst offendors and so the public sector binge continues, even the Bankers are in on it now, no doubt they’ll show us how to really splurge on taxpayers money.

Regrettably, many of these expensive Chief Executives have never been up to the responsibilities they are paid for. In recent years Local Authorities have recruited on the basis that professional qualiifications and a rigorous approach are not necessary in the higher echelons of management – good presentation skills and an ability to avoid blame are the new “core skills”. I doubt the Chief Executives will even understand that they have failed, let alone know what to do about it.

Above all cross party co-operation should come into play now more than ever – this is no time for petty point scoring – not when the taxpayer’s money lies in the balance like this.

Wise words Mr Redwood, lets hope the local councils are listening!

With the seizure of Icelandic assets the government seems to be unwittingly sailing into choppy waters it may come to regret. Take, as an example, an Icelandic bank owned retail chain the government might seize. There’s two potentially difficult outcomes. The first is it has a fire sale of the asset to get cash back rapidly for UK depositors. The downside is it provides an unflattering mark to market causing a devaluation in the rest of the sector. The second is it holds the asset and the company runs into difficulty, does it liquidate it and extend the dole queue, or does it pump money in providing an unfair advantage over competitors?