I see that, despite promises of austerity (and sharing the pain etc), our overlords in HM Treasury are having a little trouble getting into the spirit of "we are all in this together".George Osborne had made a promise that this Christmas HMT would buy its official Christmas tree from B&Q (estimated price £40), instead of the normal one that costs them £875.
Why does the "normal" tree cost HMT (ie us, the taxpayers) so much?
Well loyal readers our "beloved" ex PM and his administration of cronies managed to sign themselves up with a company (Exchequer Partnerships, a PFI supplier), who apparently live on the planet Zog and are of the view that trees cost £875.
Anyhoo, all was going according to plan (in George's mind) until the Treasury's Permanent Secretary, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, wrote him a memo informing him that he could not buy a £40 tree.
For why?
It would be a breach of contract, the company would not water it, they probably wouldn't lend a ladder to help decorate it and most likely there would be health and safety issues regarding the decoration of said tree.
Can you see the underlying message here?
Yes, that's right, it's:
"We have no intention of making any changes in the way that this department operates, go fark yourself!".
Now those of us who live in the real world know perfectly well that a tree can be bought for £40, and watered for two weeks or so (even if it isn't, it's only meant to be there for a couple of weeks) etc. However, the brain dead members of our civil service (who are paid remarkably well) cannot and will not see it that way.
The very sad conclusion to be drawn from this instructive Christmas tale is that the government (even if it is sincere) hasn't got a hope in hell of cutting costs in the areas where they can be cut, without affecting front line services; because the people who administer the cuts will do all in their power to block them, and pass them onto front line services.
In short, the civil service needs to be shut down and built up from scratch again.
Don't forget that at the height of our Empire -"E is for Empire, on which the sun never sets!" - (when we ran approximately 25% of the world) we were able to do it with a civil service that was barely 30% of the bloated, pension inflated monstrosity that we have now.
BTW, it seems that the PFI supplier was so humiliated by the publicity concerning this that they eventually "gifted" a tree for £30. They wouldn't lend a ladder though, and the permanent secretary had to stand on a chair to put a star on the top.
Visit The Orifice of Government Commerce and buy a collector's item.
Visit The Joy of Lard and indulge your lard fantasies.
Show your contempt for Nanny by buying a T shirt or thong from Nanny's Store.
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Celebrate the joy of living with booze. Click and drink!
Visit Oh So Swedish Swedish arts and handicrafts
Why not really indulge yourself, by doing all the things that Nanny really hates? Click on the relevant link to indulge yourselves; Food, Bonking, Gifts and Flowers, Groceries
Perhaps HMT should not have had a Christmas tree AT ALL, in recognition of the fact that lots of people can no longer afford to have one either.
ReplyDeleteI think Julian makes a good point and I also feel that, given that HMT usually closes during the Christmas holiday, do they really need one anyway.
ReplyDeleteI also am surprised that the PC brigade haven't jumped all over this in case those of another faith or of no faith are offended.
My biggest concern over the civil service, (now there's an oxymoron if ever there was one) is that in keeping with most of the so called public sector, they always start with last year's budget and then want to add an inflation beating rise just to keep services at their current levels, this is in marked contrast with the private or productive sector; they look at last year's budget and then look at where money can be saved. A company needs to keep costs down as their whole survival relies on their ability to make a profit, in contrast, the public sector feels it has a never ending supply of cash because Joe Muggings always coughs up.
Too many within the civil service and public bodies recieve to much for too little in return and many would be unable to a) get a job in the real world and b) if they did get a job in the real world, they would be unable to hold it down nor get promotion based on ability.
"We are all in this together."
ReplyDeleteNo we are not! There is one rule for them, and a totally different one for ordinary people. The problem is that these parasites have no quarms about closing old peoples homes, cutting the number of policemen on the beat or any other measures that affect front line services, for which they award themselves inflation busting pay rises. However, they refuse to implement any cuts in their own empires or in the vast number of non-jobs such as outtreach coordinators, elf'n'safety directors or political correctness advisers. No, as I have stated, they ensure these survive at the expense of essential services, and our spineless politicians pay little more than lip service in standing up to them.
"The permanent secretary had to stand on a chair to put a star on the top."
ReplyDeleteYes Gods!! - I hope a risk assessment was carried out first....
"Because the people who administer the cuts will do all in their power to block them, and pass them onto front line services."
Once again, it's those bastard Common Purpose droids "Leading Beyond Authority"
http://www.commonpurpose.org.uk/about/leading-beyond-authority
Until this evil organisation is destroyed, lunacy such as this story will continue.
"the permanent secretary had to stand on a chair to put a star on the top"
ReplyDelete*Sigh*, is George not capable of doing this himself, or maybe that's something the servants used to do back at Mummy and Daddy's?
Sorry, wasn't paying attention - which episode of Yes Minister are we talking about?
ReplyDeleteHealth & Safety Executive statement about office workers putting up their own Xmas decorations
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/nov07.htm
I suspect that the Civil Servants were frustrating Osborne's efforts to deflect blame for the advice/implementation of the insane PFI delegated micromanagement.
ReplyDeleteOnly a bunch of egomaniacs would commit the government/country to a set of long term commitments covering everything from building maintenance to cleaning - and without any apparent break clauses for poor performance.
i think the man that wrote that note and all the other labour lovies who oversaw the destruction of civilised britain,should pay for the tree.
ReplyDeleteactually,just the cronie,deduct £850 from his pay.why not?