Why can’t politicians understand the simple fact that civil servants won’t be more efficient if they are afraid for their jobs?
Like the Tory-led government of 2010-15, Keir Starmer’s Labour has decided there are too many civil servants and around 10,000 have to go in order to cut payroll costs.
This is intended to help achieve the five per cent “efficiency” savings that Rachel Reeves [pictured] has demanded from every government department.
There’s just one problem: you don’t make anything more efficient by throwing away the expertise that is needed to make it work.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
I mentioned this back in David Cameron’s day. He went ahead and cut the civil service to the bone – and public services fell apart. The entire UK national infrastructure is falling apart because of his selfish “austerity” decisions that shrank public services, the economy and productivity in order to give more cash to people who were already rich.
Now Keir Starmer is preparing to make the same mistake. You may think 10,000 jobs being taking from a workforce that now numbers more than half a million isn’t much – but of course the issue is which jobs are going to go, and how will this affect services that are already barely able to operate?
The threat of losing their jobs will affect civil servants’ ability and efficiency, but one doubts that either Starmer or Reeves has thought of that. Uncertainty about the future can cause mental and physical health problems, with a consequent effect on productivity/outcomes.
And threatening civil servants’ livelihoods when they are trying to achieve Labour’s ambitious – those of us who remember the TV comedy Yes, Minister might say “courageous” – plans is foolhardy at best.
The better way to have done this would be to have said the government will modernise its delivery of services, bringing in new technology to help civil servants as appropriate – and then to slim down the service with retirements or by finding new positions for people in other organisations.
The latter is an approach that has worked very well for trade unions in the steel industry – when they have had a decent period of notice that change was coming.
The fact that Starmer, Reeves and others including Pat McFadden haven’t adopted this method suggests that they actually want to make civil servants live in fear – and that strikes This Writer as foolish in the extreme.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Civil servants won’t be more efficient if they are afraid for their jobs
Why can’t politicians understand the simple fact that civil servants won’t be more efficient if they are afraid for their jobs?
Like the Tory-led government of 2010-15, Keir Starmer’s Labour has decided there are too many civil servants and around 10,000 have to go in order to cut payroll costs.
This is intended to help achieve the five per cent “efficiency” savings that Rachel Reeves [pictured] has demanded from every government department.
There’s just one problem: you don’t make anything more efficient by throwing away the expertise that is needed to make it work.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
I mentioned this back in David Cameron’s day. He went ahead and cut the civil service to the bone – and public services fell apart. The entire UK national infrastructure is falling apart because of his selfish “austerity” decisions that shrank public services, the economy and productivity in order to give more cash to people who were already rich.
Now Keir Starmer is preparing to make the same mistake. You may think 10,000 jobs being taking from a workforce that now numbers more than half a million isn’t much – but of course the issue is which jobs are going to go, and how will this affect services that are already barely able to operate?
The threat of losing their jobs will affect civil servants’ ability and efficiency, but one doubts that either Starmer or Reeves has thought of that. Uncertainty about the future can cause mental and physical health problems, with a consequent effect on productivity/outcomes.
And threatening civil servants’ livelihoods when they are trying to achieve Labour’s ambitious – those of us who remember the TV comedy Yes, Minister might say “courageous” – plans is foolhardy at best.
The better way to have done this would be to have said the government will modernise its delivery of services, bringing in new technology to help civil servants as appropriate – and then to slim down the service with retirements or by finding new positions for people in other organisations.
The latter is an approach that has worked very well for trade unions in the steel industry – when they have had a decent period of notice that change was coming.
The fact that Starmer, Reeves and others including Pat McFadden haven’t adopted this method suggests that they actually want to make civil servants live in fear – and that strikes This Writer as foolish in the extreme.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
you might also like
Ill-gotten gains; DWP staff get New Year honours while benefit claimants go hungry
DWP says there’s no need to review its safeguarding procedures. The late Stephen Smith might disagree
Inquiry launched into Corbyn ‘frailty’ claim by civil servants – but it isn’t independent