It takes time to set anything up. I was told this by a Tory grandee, whose marquee role in the party set him up to know practically anything about it.
He’d seen more people try to make a quick buck out of it than those who didn’t. The few who tried it found it took a lot of work to do something great just within its own walls.
It would be the only work they could do because of the effort it involved. The rest of the story is a bleak outlook.
The way things go in Whitehall today, it’s not a case of asking who our greats are. They aren’t great. They don’t work hard, and often their plans don’t get turned into projects.
At least, it’s what I caught sight of as I had a look. The ‘insight’ was brief, but lasting. It showed me that for all that’s said, little is proactively done as a result.
Workplace fevers
As it seemed any colleague would quit their job at a second’s notice to join a protest, a cheapening of the state began in earnest that shaped its future course.
It was said higher up that a “quick win” would solve any issue. All it took is a “bright idea” and a lot of “science”, they said.
The problem is there were already problems in the delivery of services that explained many of the issues, and these were due to such “fads”, or ideas.
In the next stage, they believed in it. However, it was only a fervour in “doing government the right way”, and plans folded out that weren’t going to work.
A new low
It seemed to be this way in politics, and government. The new appointees saw work would take a shorter time than play, and it kicked off a culture war.
The increase in striving for leisure activity led to bitter fights for control in all realms of state, and it led to huge upset.
A moment in Whitehall sums it up. A person said swingers in a nightclub had been replaced with “Staples” and “Screwdrivers” who worked hard and didn’t play.
It spread upset in Westminster. The Tory grandee was right, this one time. There were chancers everywhere trying to draw on past scandals to make their way.
Change ahead
In a surprising twist, an answer came from Whitehall. There was a move to recruit properly. There were ideas for new computer systems to drive efficiency.
There was a call for simplification in politics to make it more clear what was being asked for. A pattern emerged of stating things straightforwardly.
This made it obvious who was working, and who wasn’t. It helped reward progress, and discipline failure. It meant work was done, and results may come out.