Big Government Sucks, proclaims a current slogan from the American Tea Party. Whether that’s true of the US or not, recent evidence of scandalous waste in Whitehall suggests it’s certainly true here.
According to one study, the Blair government alone wasted £230bn through incompetence, multiple errors and fraud. Lord knows the current tally. Yet belief in the benign capacity of government persists, not least in transforming lifestyles.
Waste on this scale isn’t attributable merely to the amateur tradition in our policymaking and implementation, but more especially to the way in which our laws and regulations are made. The democratic system lives on promises to various interest groups, exemplified by the current election campaign, some of which will find their way into legislation.
“Defra couldn’t even organise EU farm payments or the badger cull”
Now, when every Bill is drafted by a Whitehall department, it is supposed to undergo an objective assessment of the impact it will have on whoever the beneficiaries are meant to be, with particular attention to any unintended results. But this takes time and the sponsoring minister wants to get it through parliament as quickly as possible. So very often we end up with an unholy mess, such as Andrew Lansley’s reform of the NHS.
Or sometimes the law or regulation is a reasonable attempt to protect consumers from fraud or illness, for example food safety and hygiene, but, as Sue Davies pointed out (‘Talking Shop’, 28 February, p28), its implementation is a “postcode lottery”, either because resources have been wasted elsewhere or local authorities are failing to deploy their existing staff efficiently.
And then we come to those who want to embark on grand, if ill-defined schemes for changing the whole basis on which our food and farming industry operates - ‘a new food framework’ being one catchy phrase. Defra couldn’t even organise the implementation of the EU single farm payment system or the cull of badgers. What makes anyone have faith in their ability, or that of any other government department, to take on anything more ambitious without a lot of external help? Effective partnership between government and industry is the only way forward.
Kevin Hawkins is a retail consultant
No comments yet