The Tories aren’t working

[Esceptico]

Another Tory government and yet more posturing over the civil service and how it needs to be reformed. That has been the mantra since at least 1979 when Thatcher got into power (so 41 years ago). In that 41 years the Tories have been in power except for the interlude of Tory Lite New Labour...yet they still haven’t cracked it. How many more decades do they need? Or are they part of the problem, rather than the solution?

[Esceptico]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I still have plenty of family and friends in the UK so why wouldn’t I care? I am not worked up. Just pointing out that the Tories are still going on about the evils of the public sector when they have had decades to do something about it. Why haven’t they solved the problem yet?

[Esceptico]

Earthdweller said:

Do you think it’s Broken ?

What is the problem ?

What is the solution ?

It is the Tories that keep going on about the public sector - they are the ones that think it is broken but they never seem to fix it.

[Esceptico]

98elise said:

Labour lost....badly. Get over it.

What has that got to do with the point I’m making?

[Esceptico]

hucumber said:

bad company said:

That’s simply not true. What’s ‘falling apart at the seams’?

The NHS. The Fire service. The Ambulance service. The Police. The roads. Homelessness is getting worse. These are things that I experience on a regular basis, and they are things that should be kept on top of, but aren't. When the basic things that are required for a modern society to exist in some degree of comfort and safety aren't funded properly, something is wrong

The council estate where my mother lives looks awful. They have obviously cut back on maintenance and repairs, the grass isn’t being cut, the paths are falling apart with weeds growing through them. Dreadful. She has been there for 35 years and it has never looked worse.

[Esceptico]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That other thread was started somewhat tongue in cheek. Which you obviously missed. I’m not about to swap my GSXR 750 for a 125. The fact that it’s the only bike I’ve bought twice shows how much I like it. However I am thinking of adding another RS250 to my garage.

[Esceptico]

poo at Paul's said:

BadBull said:

Esceptico said:

The council estate where my mother lives looks awful. They have obviously cut back on maintenance and repairs, the grass isn’t being cut, the paths are falling apart with weeds growing through them. Dreadful. She has been there for 35 years and it has never looked worse.

Perhaps you should look after her better rather than fking off to NZ and then blaming politicians.

Fair point. Why not go round and cut the grass yourself if it upsets your dear old mum so much? How long would it take, 30 mins every couple of weeks?
If you are miles away, find her a local bloke to do it, will be 20 quid a month for what, 6 months of the year?

You could argue it is not your job but again, if it is upsetting your mum, seems v. easy to sort it out!

I’m not talking about her garden. Her garden is amazing as she does it herself. I’m talking about the public areas/greens that are the responsibility of the council.

[Esceptico]

So far no one has addressed the actual topic, which was how come the Tories are obsessed with inefficiency and waste in the public sector yet after decades in power have not solved the problem.

This reflects the tribal mentality on here. Questioning the Tories for many on here is like insulting their favourite football team or favourite car brand where logic, intelligence and impartiality go straight out of the window.

[Esceptico]

PHuzzy said:

Because the answer will upset a large number of people.
To make the public sector more efficient, an awful lot of dead wood needs removing and it's not exactly a vote/public winner to put a large percentage of people out of work.

So instead we're stuck with years of expensive pensions and inefficiency that I'm guessing they'll try and phase out over time with 'austerity' measures by not replacing them and cutting the crap.

Ideally you'd start from scratch and build it from the ground up to run more like a business but as soon as we mention privatisation the world goes nuts because they know it'll cost them more. That's the price of efficiency.

But if it’s more efficient it should cost us less, not more.

[Esceptico]

Agammemnon said:

Red 4 said:

The private sector have tried to take on public sector roles in many areas and it has indeed cost more.
How is that efficiency ?

British Rail
British Telecom
British Leyland

Compare when they were in the public sector with when they were in the private sector. I'm confident you won't see the efficiency improvements & higher standards but others will.

Hardly the finest examples.

I’m old enough to remember BR but as an adult have mainly used the privatised services. BR must have been unimaginable bad if what we currently have is an improvement. I’ve travelled by train in quite a few countries and the only worse experience so far was India.

BL doesn’t even exist. Car production is more efficient it is just all owned and run by foreigners.

BT. Please don’t get me started on BT or my blood pressure will start to go off the charts. When we moved into a new build in the UK the fun and games I had with BT trying to get them to organise a telephone line with internet. Literally hours and hours wasted trying to find someone who could help (I had lots of chats with people in India who were unfailing polite but not able to do anything and forbidden from giving out UK telephone numbers).

[Esceptico]

I’ve worked mainly in the private sector (senior management in some of the world’s biggest firms) and a short stint in the public sector. From my perspective all were shockingly inefficient.

In the private sector I couldn’t believe the divide between management and workers. The pay and benefit for the workers was controlled very tightly with management trying to get away with paying as little as possible. However, benefits and excesses for management were off the scale. It was very pleasant going to a management “meeting” at a five star hotel in St Moritz (family included) and I’m sure the morning spent working was productive enough to offset the day and half we had on the slopes...

On the other hand, in the public sector where I worked many employees were effectively unsackable and you had to rely on their sense of duty or goodwill to get anything done because if they wanted to do fk all there was not much we as management could do about it.