I don’t want these articles to take too long.
Any private sector employee not performing as required will get fired. Sooner or later. Sometimes you lose your job just because the company needs to cut costs, and you weren’t valuable enough to be absorbed somewhere else.
So there is always a motivation to do better. Go beyond. Save your spot so that you can keep feeding your family. And even if you are let go… it is a combination of your skills, experience, and network that helps you move forward.
The stakes are even higher for anyone who’s an entrepreneur. You now have yourself and all of your employees to look after.
The private sector needs you, the employee, to create and deliver value. You only get to sit at the table if you can. It’s a very swift and rapid “bye-bye” when you can’t.
Our government(s) and civil service face no such pressure. If things get really bad, they might face an inquiry. There will be committees, hearings, investigations, and an endless stream of updates. But there will never be a consequence.
It’s Monday, 19th October, as I write this. The UK is in a bad state. It has been for some time. Working people (defined as net contributors) and small businesses are being slowly choked to death. It’s difficult to put food on the table. Money is tight. Incomes are not rising, but costs are. Costs rise in every imaginable form, from diesel to childcare… from a loaf of bread to a plane ticket. Doctor shortage. Teachers underpaid. An ageing population. Prisoners are being let out because there’s no more space. Unemployment. People choose to live on welfare because working leaves them with nothing. Immigration is tearing the country in half.
But Westminster and Whitehall are both immune to this. MPs and Civil Servants continue to enjoy above-inflation pay rises and secure pensions.
They are rewarded for their failures, whilst we are taxed on our successes.
Imagine a UK where an MP could be banned from ever standing again for office for a public position for failure to deliver their pledges. Imagine if they actually had to make pledges on what they would accomplish. Imagine if a civil servant could lose their job as easily as we could for not performing. Imagine a public register that listed all the MPs and civil servant that could not give factually correct answers during an inquiry.
I wonder how many MPs and civil servants would be able to run a successful business? I wonder how many MPs and civil servants in power understand basic microeconomics and statistics? I wonder how many MPs and civil servants would serve on the front lines if it came to another war*?
They don’t celebrate things that improve our lives. They celebrate when they survive despite having dug a hole for us. There is nothing for them to fear. There are no material consequences. They know it. They know that you’ll forget. They know that you’ll just keep your head down and try to survive.
We don’t need a public sector that mimics corporate greed; we need a public sector that fears professional failure.
Until we strip away the bureaucratic immunity and introduce real, career-ending consequences for incompetence, the “blame carousel” will keep spinning. We will continue to be taxed on our survival, while they will continue to reward themselves as we decline.
My dear brothers and sisters of the United Kingdom, my fellow Britons: this historic and once great nation deserves better. We deserve better. The future generations deserve better.
Is competent leadership too much to ask for?
*A prayer to the universe: please let there be no more wars! May the nations focus on their internal improvements before expansions!