Public sector workers need 'discipline and fear', says Oliver Letwin

[Tortington]

oliver letwin

I think you will find that most PS workers are treated with contempt by the public. I worked in the public sector for a while- never again - because of some of the vile and offensive comments I had to put up with because I couldn't bend the rules for someone.

If the 'reality of the world at large' is that private care homes can go bust, putting many vulnerable elderly and sick people at risk of losing their home (and leaving the public sector to pick up the pieces), then yes, bring on the isolation.

I think the same can be said of the private sector too swc. There are good and bad and efficient and inefficient in all sectors and all industries. So less of the generalisations. And that goes for mr letwin too.

ok. I DO stop here.

I'd bet a sizeable proportion of people who have ever bought a house believe that private sector lawyers can be what you might kindly describe as 'inefficient'. And that's just for starters.

I've worked in the private sector, for charities and voluntary organisations and in association with the public sector (never directly for the public sector). IME bad management and inefficiency occur in all of them. Just as good management and efficiency occur in all of them as well. But much of the inefficiency in the public sector is imposed - by stupid self-defeating 'cuts' or failure to invest.

Apparently one of the reasons the Army couldn't send a soldier in Iraq the right pair of boots is that their stores and stock checking systems use computers dating from the 1980s that don't talk to the IT systems of their suppliers. Obviously it's not just about boots, it's about whole ruddy engines and far more, but it's a specific example - they sent him a pair two sizes too small. He didn't get a pair that fitted until after his tour of duty.

Stupid cuts mean sacking youth workers who help to give young people at risk of being drawn into gangs an alternative. So we can expect crime rates to go up. Which will cost everybody a hell of a lot more in the long term, in monetary terms but also in injuries, in screwed up live and avoidable deaths.

I've worked as a private sector lawyer in a city firm and in the GLS and your generalisations don't ring true at all. But carry on believing it if it makes you feel better swc

swc - you are sooo wrong on so many levels.

But, I am a bit doubtful if OL's little item was to be well-met by No.10. No doubt he was playing to the gallery in the arena he spoke, but does this weakened coalition really want to fan the flames of industrial unrest unnecessarily? Or, is this OL's bid for the leadership when DC gets shafted over hacking-gate?
Just a thought.

And let's nail this lie about 'productivity'. Productivity is easy to measure if you make widgets. How many widgets can you produce for a given level of inputs - raw materials, equipment and employees? But that measurement of productivity is not capable of measuring something really complicated and human like the health service. If you provide better healthcare, that keeps people well, so they don't need complicated and expensive operations (that may not have great outcomes in a real sense, anyway) current crude measures of productivity make it look as if it's going down.

If you want to make the NHS look more productive in this crude system of measurement, you just sack a load of doctors and nurses. Fewer inputs will make productivity look better. But it'll be shit for patients and shit for the Treasury. There will be longer waits, much more pain, much more disability, more people unable to work, worse health and fewer people - health professionals and patients who haven't treated well - paying tax

are you suggesting a short term view Edam...surely not the Torys? when crime rises becusae there are no diversionary activities, all the teachers - thegood ones anyway leave to get paid better money privatley, the nurses do the same, the nhs gets sold off to letwins bum chums and the poor get shafted, so we are left with uneducated, unhealthy people and higher crime rates

that will mean more police officers...wait..the good ones will be doing a private police equivalent...what is that? security guard?

oh shock horror at the cartoonisation of public school nepotism. get an argument swc or get of the bus dear

It'll mean G4S or whatever flag of convenience Group 4 have adopted doing all the 'policing' making fat profits for Olly's mates. Because us taxpayers exist to be milked by Crapita and G4S and the rest of the shysters, while also being mugged in the more direct manner because there aren't any ruddy coppers left...

ahh, i see

that is part of the 'grand design'. Tories are trying to re-design Britain into 'pay for it if you can - boost our profits - if you can't well, tough because we are ok at seeing you die early, because frankly if we can't make a profit out of you then we don't need you and therefore you have no reason to exist' sort of thing.

Fairly simple - even bad barristers could get their heads round it.

Seriously, OL spoke to a forum in an inflammatory way when DC was out of the country, minus his socks. I am sure OL ran his item past Gove first...

No amount of scrubbing, dear...

Like I said, there are good and bad in both sectors. I've been a professional negligence litigator so I know all too well that there are plenty of rubbish lawyers in the private sector too. That's why I don't agree with the private=good public=bad generalisation.

Letwin can fuck right off.