SIR Keir Starmer has vowed to take on the civil service blob – and not a minute too soon.
So OK, he didn’t do an Elon Musk and leap around on stage with a chainsaw promising to slash and burn our bloated state.
AlamySir Keir Starmer has vowed to take on the civil service blob[/caption]
The Blob is a reference to a 1950s film starring Steve McQueen
Our Labour Prime Minister doesn’t do theatre. But he has seen the light.
After years of bashing the Tories for daring to talk about civil service reform, Labour now admit the state is too big, too expensive and failing taxpayers.
Speak to senior figures in government and for months they have been saying the same thing: “Dominic Cummings was right – the blob is out of control.”
The Blob is a reference to a (brilliant) 1950s film starring Steve McQueen, which sees a red jelly-like alien crash to earth and consume everything it touches.
It gobbles up doctors, mechanics and carefree teenagers enjoying date night at the cinema – each time growing fatter and more menacing off their carcases.
Like the fictional Blob, our civil service is growing bigger and bigger – feasting on the billions of taxpayers’ pounds being endlessly poured into it.
Yet the state is failing to do the basics.
Our roads are littered with crater-like potholes. Stinking piles of rubbish are going uncollected in parts of the country because of strikes and council mismanagement.
People are literally pulling their own teeth out because they cannot get a dentist appointment.
Something has to change. There are endless examples of barmy things the state is spending taxpayers’ cash on which it shouldn’t be.
Many have been uncovered by the Procurement Files X account.
It revealed that we spent a whopping £7.3 million in aid to India to help with Net Zero – even though India has a bigger economy than us!
Some £2million will go on arty projects in Eastern Europe including a storytelling festival in Georgia and a fashion week to strengthen UK-Armenia ties.
Some £1.7million was spent on chauffeurs for mayors so they can gallivant around town in style.
Are these shuffling bigwigs really so weighed down by their ceremonial chains of office they can’t hop on a bus or drive their own car like the rest of us?
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
The work from home culture that has got its claws into our civil service has not helped things
If you start to look it is simply mind-boggling to see the jaw-dropping waste that permeates every part of our broken state.
The work from home culture that has got its claws into our civil service has not helped things.
There are a few particularly whiffy examples. Like Tom Scholar – the former top mandarin at the Treasury who was allowed to work from South America for months at a time.
Or our new borders chief John Tuckett – who had hoped to do the £130,000 a year job from his pretty town in Finland before the PM intervened to stop him.
One insider told me some civil servants are asking to work from home so they can look after their cat.
There are sometimes reasons for flexible working.
But if you take 100 civil servants and plonk them in 100 different homes it is inevitable that work will take longer and decisions will be poorer.
Meanwhile, Britain is drowning in a quicksand of regulation.
Take our ever increasing list of eco rules. This is what led to £100million being spent on the infamous HS2 bat tunnel.
Over in Kent, the discovery of jumping spiders halted construction of a new town.Business chiefs often have to wade through regulations thicker than the Bible to get a new product to market.
One government figure who was around in the New Labour years said they have been shocked at how much the civil service has changed in that time.
It has gone from a Whitehall machine that may have been a bit slow but did try to do what ministers asked, to one that blocks and obstructs, they said.
Sir Keir Starmer is right to try to rewire the state.
In the old 1950s film, locals eventually discover the one thing that will stop the Blob – the cold – and it is dropped into the Arctic.
Britain’s Blob must also be put into the deep freeze – before our entire economy ends up going that way.
FIGHT’S YET TO FINISH
X/TwitterSnap from 1930 shows a group of female Afghan nurses working at Kandahar Women’s Hospital[/caption]
THE world celebrated International Women’s Day last week and a photo caught my attention on X.
It was taken in 1930 and showed a group of female Afghan nurses working at Kandahar Women’s Hospital.
They looked so pretty and full of promise in their starched white uniforms and neat nurse’s caps.
A century later, women in Afghanistan are banned from studying medicine, working or going to university.
Today, the Taliban would behead a woman for even wearing a nurse’s uniform – after all, it shows their face.
The Taliban is a medieval death cult which is trying to erase women and our role in the world.
That poignant photograph is a tragic lesson in how hard-won rights can be lost if we don’t fight for them.
STRAW, CAMEL
GettyA friend of a friend threw their child an Ancient Egypt themed party, with kids donning Tutankhamun masks[/caption]
IS the arms race for throwing the best kids birthday party getting out of control?
A friend of a friend threw their child an Ancient Egypt themed party – and even hired two real live camels for the shindig.
Kids donned Tutankhamun masks and classical looking togas, while wielding balloon swords.
Now I am always up for a big party.
But whatever happened to a game of musical chairs at the local Scouts hut followed by some face painting done by an elder sibling press-ganged into service?
Today it is camels. What will it be tomorrow?
A flock of rainbow unicorns?
AFRAID TO FACE JUSTICE
PACrossbow killer Kyle Clifford refused to go to court to hear his sentence[/caption]
CROSSBOW killer Kyle Clifford was so cowardly he refused to go to court to hear his sentence.
Compare that to the immense bravery of John Hunt, whose two daughters, Louise and Hannah, and wife Carol were killed.
Mr Hunt, a BBC racing commentator, gave a truly powerful and moving tribute to his murdered family in court.
He quoted from his daughter Louise’s favourite book, To Kill a Mockingbird, which describes how it is a sin to Kill a Mockingbird because they only bring joy.
Mr Hunt said: “All their lives Carol, Hannah and Louise similarly spent their time bringing joy and colour and happiness to other people’s lives.
“You killed three beautiful Mockingbirds, Kyle.”
Every word Mr Hunt spoke was a moving tribute to the joy and love his family had shared – the Sunday dinners at the pub, games and laughter over Christmas.
Every word was a devastating indictment of the senseless, evil slaughter Kyle carried out that day.
I could not hold back my tears as I read it.
The judge decided not to order Kyle to be brought to court to hear his whole life sentence being passed down because he is in a wheelchair.
It meant he was not in court to hear Mr Hunt’s words.
But he should have been made to attend the sentencing. There should be no excuse – even if he is in a wheelchair.
Why should Kyle get shown the mercy he so brutally denied his victims?
SHOPLIFTING GOES ON
IS there no end to the shoplifting epidemic?
I was recently pottering around a sleepy Yorkshire village when I popped into an antiques shop.
They didn’t have anything too fancy – some silver candlesticks, tea sets and glass decanters.
Next to the decanter was a note that read: “Due to theft, decanter stoppers are now Sellotaped.”
Someone had clearly been trying to get a five-finger discount.
Is nothing sacred?
‘THOUGHTFUL’ MEGHAN HAS TO PACKET IN
Meghan showed us how to make thoughtful gifts for her guests on her Netflix showSupplied
SuppliedThis included pouring pretzels out of a packet, into an unbranded sandwich bags, and then putting a ribbon around it[/caption]
I HAVE finally watched the first episode of Meghan’s new TV show – With Love, Meghan.
Unless you have been living in a nuclear bunker, you will already know the deal: Princess Meg has gone all trad wife and teaches us how to bake cakes, boil pasta and make a candle.
A particular highlight for me was when Meghan showed us how to make thoughtful gifts for her guests.
This included pouring pretzels out of a branded packet, into see-through unbranded sandwich bags, and then putting a nice ribbon around it.
That’s Christmas sorted.
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