I'll Tell You What's Wrong With This Damn Country

No one, ever, wants to solve a problem

Everyone just wants to spaff even more money on not solving problems instead. There’s never an admittance that “Ooops, yep, bad idea, let’s stop doing that”. My evidence is this commenting upon the Spending Review of last week (from a PR email):

Commenting on the Spending Review announcements by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Naomi Clayton, Chief Executive at the Institute for Employment Studies (IES), said:

"Today’s Spending Review is set against a backdrop of growing concern over a stalling labour market and global economic uncertainty. With 2.8 million people currently out of work due to long term ill health, it is encouraging to see the Pathways to Work additional investment of £1 billion by 2029-30 protected. This will sit alongside continued investment in Connect to Work and WorkWell, two government-backed programmes to support people with health conditions or disabilities find and stay in work, and the introduction of a new contracted employment support programme. However, questions remain over whether this investment will be sufficient, and delivered quickly enough, to mitigate the impacts of planned benefit cuts.

"There is also a welcome emphasis on young people, with 12.5% of young people not in education, employment or training and at risk of long-term scarring effects. The extension of the eight youth trailblazers as temporary 'test and learn' initiatives, along with the nationwide roll out of Youth Hubs and investment in training for young people, marks a positive step. The government now needs to integrate and scale up support to ensure that every 16-24-year-old has access to quality job and training opportunities through the Youth Guarantee."

Everything is spray more money up the wall on ever greater complexity so that the nomenklatura have more offices to sit in.

Why not actually solve the problem? Cut the minimum wage so that employers are willing to give an employment chance to some untried, untested, but possibly not dullard? Slash benefits levels so that absolutely no bugger at all is willing to sit at home and do nowt. Kill the ludicrous employment legislation that stops anyone from firing an as it happens turns out to be dullard.

Well, yes, obviously that pathway would indeed solve the problem except it wouldn’t provide jobs as chief executives to power skirts who then get to write PR emails. But then that’s rather the point.

Time to demolish Marble Arch I’m afraid. Get the Tyburn Tree back out of storage and back into employment. Those nomenklaturaichki are really getting on my tits and about time they got it in the ne…..well, no, that’s advocating violence, isn’t it. The Cathaginian solution then.

Or even, just solve the damn problems themselves rather than spraying ever more up the wall papering them over. Now there’s an idea, eh?