Overly cautious, hidebound by process, blocking the path to progress.
So said Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he voiced frustration over public bodies’ collective process problem which he says obstructs the government’s growth ambitions.
His address in Hull last Thursday highlighted familiar complaints about a lumbering state, which play out more vividly in American politics.
Bits of government – notably the quangos* – don’t work together well, or quickly enough, it’s claimed. There’s too much duplication, with comms teams coming in for special mention. Organisations announce endless, repeated consultations which masquerade as action. And politics finds itself in a ‘defensive crouch’, ducking big decisions.
All this while housing and energy costs rocket, patients wait for hospital treatment and living standards slide.
Those sentiments underpinned his headline-grabbing pledge to slash bureaucracy by abolishing the body set up to run the NHS in England.
I think you get more from listening to a speech as it’s given than you do from reading the pre-briefed, slanted headlines. You can catch it here.
The points about regulation chime at least in part with complaints by Liz Truss – remember her? – about red tape strangling growth. Tanking the economy with a recklessly disastrous mini budget didn’t help either, in fairness. But here we are today, with process in the firing line.
As someone who worked for a quango in a comms team and has run a few consultations, I feel drawn to offer thoughts on the speech and where it leaves us. There’s loads more to say on collaboration, culture and why good regulation matters.
If you want another take on how we got here, The Economist’s leader from January sets it out well.
For now, here are three things that struck me about a speech that, let’s not forget, came from a Labour Prime Minister less than a year into the job. That he’s speaking in such tones at all is noteworthy.
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