Useless Jobs.
Lord Tebbit, admired always by this Blog for his personal courage and public candour but rarely for his policy positions, has written an excellent article for the Times today. In an assessment of the road ahead for the coalition he considers the prospect of the unions bringing it down, as they did with the Heath and Callaghan governments. He makes shrewd comparison with those two frustrated leaders and their much more resolute successor, Margaret Thatcher.
He also points out that the cost of the public sector is not because of the dedicated employees at the sharp end of delivery; refuse, hospital ancillaries and so on, but the middle class, often overpaid, public sector workers doing utterly useless jobs. He says they should be the first for the chop. I entirely agree. It is a harsh doctrine, especially if it is your job that goes, but spending has got to come down to the level of revenue. Many of those affected will be Tory voters. Some will recognise the party is over, but others will feel aggrieved.
Nevertheless the coalition as a sum and in its parts, must remain resolute. It must also do everything possible to create the opportunities, freedom and finance to enable British industrial strength to be rebuilt. The destruction of our industrial base with its employment and wealth creating capacity, replacing it with a so called services economy is where Thatcherism went wrong. In his quiet reflective moments Lord Tebbit will know that. The coalition must work also to ensure that this current upheaval does not leave an unwelcome problem for future generations to resolve.