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The problem with politicians is that they will happily claim the credit when things go well but always pass the buck when they go wrong. So for years we have had Gordon Brown and Blair extolling the “Iron Chancellor, Prudence and Over the Economic Cycle, Golden Rules” and so on, but now things are going wrong it’s all: “Global economic events but Britain is better placed…Blah, blah.”

The truth is that even if Brown had been the genius he thinks he is, without the Thatcher reforms, he wouldn’t have been able to do a thing, the British economy didn’t start in 1997. Would a Tory government have done better ? Probably not but hopefully they wouldn’t have put 800,000 new people on the State Payroll.

They Know Not What They Do…

Regardless of political party, the essential problem with all politicians is that they are trying to do far too much, we are expecting too much and the consequence is that the overall delivery is a shambles and will never ever meet the promise.

The key factor lies in people’s expectations. If you keep telling people that you will increase the service/quality of anything by 100% but in the end only manage 80%, it is human nature that the “missing 20%” is psychologically more important to them than the 80% improvement – whine all you like but that is the way it is.

The best advice one can give to all politicians would be to first, shut up, second, promise a lot less and when you do, promise long and deliver faster. Parliament does not attract successful and experienced people from any walk of life or at least, there are very few with any track record outside of politics. Sadly, the majority of MPs are failures and refugees from the real world and are therefore, not especially qualified to do anything much.

As they know not what they do, I would heartily recommend that they did 75% less and what they do, try and execute perfectly.

Let us take one example of total wrong thinking that illustrates just how wide of the mark these people have become but, I’m not going into all the details of it:- Reforming the House of Lords which is about as useful an activity for Parliament as tilting at windmills or more accurately perhaps, looking down the wrong end of a telescope.

What has defeated every attempt to reform the Lords is not their Lordship’s obduracy but simply the fact that all Executive Power resides in the House of Commons and specifically, in the hands of the Prime Minister of the day. If you want a wholly or partially elected reforming second chamber, that chamber must have some powers, is the Commons prepared to cede some ? Apparently not.

It is not the Lords that needs reforming, it is the House of Commons and specifically its relationship with the “First Among Equals” the Prime Minister of the day. If the Commons won’t surrender any powers to a second chamber then the solution must be to constrain the government by the redistribution of those existing powers within the Commons. The point I’m trying to get across here is that on this and as with so many issues politicians aren’t even looking in the right direction.

Finally the Real Meat

Every bit of legislation that goes through the house is known as a “Bill” for the very good reason that whatever the measure, it will cost money, our money not the governments because it doesn’t have any of its own. In theory though sadly not in fact, the MPs our elected representatives, should scrutinize the Bill on our behalf to ensure that it is both right and fair. What actually happens currently is that the MPs who are members of the largest party that forms the government of the day, meekly do as they are told by the Whips, not a lot of scrutiny or thinking goes on in these days.

There are many aspects of our Parliament that need updating or changing. Practices that were once correct have subsequently been overtaken by events but, when it comes to anything that impinges upon Constitutional matters, one should hasten slowly and always start with a detailed examination of how things work and are connected to each other which, takes time.

However there is one immediate and radical change that could be implemented if not overnight then at least on a rolling basis, turn Parliament and the Government into consumers of public services rather than the providers of them.

Parliament As The Consumer

Ask yourself the question as to whether Parliament needs to provide say Weston Super Mare in Somerset with a Hospital ?

Of course Parliament would want the citizens of Weston Super Mare to have a hospital but why should they build it and run it, they just want to use it or to be exact, let the citizens use it, there is no need to own it. Providing Parliament is prepared to deploy the funding on a “given basis/formula” why shouldn’t a private business or workers co-operative supply the service, build the thing and run it ?

If you follow the logic through, there will be clear variations in cost from place to place for providing the exact same level of service. To do so in the Highlands of Scotland will be very different from Edinburgh and Edinburgh, different again from Glasgow, for example. No, I’m not picking on Scotland because the variations are almost limitless as for example all around the South and South West coast of England, people decide to “retire to the seaside” the consequences of which in terms of health service costs, because of a lot of old people the will be much higher.

Extend the Concept

Okay, we can argue and dicker over the details but the same basic principles can be applied to the majority of government services from education to collecting taxes. Parliament should set standards and pass laws to enforce them. As it is responsible for dispensing our money, it should set the “tariff” and explain the formulas used and the variations upon them publicly.

The current Government since 1997 has added some 800,000 people to the unproductive public payroll and if we take out the “increased nurses, policemen” claimed, we will find the vast majority of these jobs are pen pusher ones connected with following and validating spurious “delivery targets” and why ? In this case and little different under other parties I’m sure, it is to prove that the government is “doing a good job” – pathetic.

If Parliament becomes the “funder and consumer”, at no cost to the public purse, it recruits an army of “users of the service” who will police it all far better and more passionately than they ever could. The only thing that they would have to provide is an independent arbitration service for when things go a bit “Pete Tong”.

Things You Cannot “Privatise”

Obviously the Law and the Interpretation of the Law come on top of the pile and I am sure that there are others but the biggest of all is naturally Defence of the Realm and indeed not just historically in this country but right across time, the apparent desire of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister to surrender the right to “Declare War” which is an assumed “Royal Prerogative” anyway, is a total nonsense and further illustration of the intellectual desert that the Palace of Westminster has become of late.

The Basic Requirement

Possibly always across the centuries but most definitely today, the average Member of Parliament couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery because they are neither qualified nor experienced in management and delivery. It is a bit like a one legged man would find climbing a ladder very difficult, be able to do reasonably better in using a rope but that said, neither would be ideal for him so why put him to the test ?

I can vaguely remember from school days my teacher describing “nouns” as “important things” and “verbs” as “doing words”. MP is definitely a noun so, they definitely should not be “doing things” in terms of delivery, being important is what they are about, especially in John Lewis I am told.

If Parliament sticks to introducing the Bills we want, scrutinizing them, setting “over-sight procedures” and enforcement ones, they can then put the “service” out for tender but devolve the contract awarding process to non-politicians and just report to us on progress.

The Fundamental Flaw

The way the Government currently does business is both chaotic and demented by trying to be both the “funding body” and the “delivery mechanism” . This weekend I saw an article from a senior person in EDS (main IT supplier to HMG), about how the Government was using IT to drive change which as I know from an IT perspective is about as wrong thinking as you can get because that is not how it works. Even if I wasn’t IT management literate, as a taxpayer, that sort of approach could only have had some traction 5 years ago, today, no chance, far too many “data loss” issues to contend with !

If anything, New Labour’s agenda for minimum wages, maternity leave and all the rest of the “employee friendly” but bad for business paraphernalia has and will be its undoing because as far as is possible, government should not be involved in employing people. Run with the Fox, hunt with the hounds but never ever, try to do both.

The Labour Government has very successfully “sat upon” increased wage demands in the public sector whilst both inflation according to them and inflation “in the real world” has way outstripped wages for a number of years. To some this may seem a pretty “smart” way of doing things but, it also builds up a head of steam and resentment so, no way to go, the best of all solution is to just get out of the employment business.