Axing those 91,000 Civil Servants

We learn that Johnson has packed off all his ministers to come up with bright ideas for saving a bob or two, thereby to forestall the the current and fast-growing economic crisis.  I’m sure we’ve all suffered fatuous “initiatives” like this at work, and had cause to marvel at the inanity of it all.  If your Chancellor doesn’t have advisers of the calibre of a Keynes to come up with the broad macro-strokes that will be required, there’s just no point.   We gather this particular “idea” is attributable to the execrable Rees-Mogg.  If BJ imagines saving a couple of billions by axing 91,000 civil servants will contribute anything meaningful, he’s as stupid as anyone ever imagined.

(a) None of us want a bloated civil service, nor a bunch of workshy WFHers on the payroll; but unless by some miracle he can identify exactly those 91,000 people who are collectively & personally responsible (haha) for the global crisis we now face it will have purely disruptive consequences – and broad-spectrum ones at that – at exactly the time he’s enough on his plate;

(b) I’m no expert on how public finance accounting works, but I don’t see how it will save money for a good few years; 

(c) If he wants a diversionary tactic against voters noticing his own crass behaviour and manifest unfitness for office, there are many better ones, at infinitely less cost, to be had.  The only diverting that will happen will be of governmental time and energies.

As we know from covid, when the shit really hits the fan, the government cheerfully moves the whole nation onto the public payroll anyway.  The shit that’s almost certainly going to happen between now and the next election makes this an entirely spurious ‘policy’.

Discuss!

ND