Why did Labour do nothing to control public sector waste?

Question

"Labour has failed to control public sector spending over the past decade and needlessly wasted taxpayers’ money, according to a leaked Government document proposing £9 billion in cuts. "


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6685445/Labour-has-failed-to-control-public-sector-waste-Government-report-says.html

Answer 1

Why did New Labour do nothing to control private sector greed over the past decade?



That has so far cost the public sector and the tax payer £50 billion or more and the figure is still rising.

Answer 2

Everyone always condemns public sector waste but private enterprise wastes even more of the planets increasingly scarce resources in pursuit of profit. If the rich actually paid their taxes £9bn would be seen as a drop in the ocean compared to what they really owe the public purse.



Public sector waste of the taxpayers hard earned money is a scandal and should not be tolerated. But I do not see the Telegraph campaigning for a crackdown on tax dodgers. In fact the financial pages of all the so-called "quality" newspapers - including the leftish leaning "the Guardian" - publish reams of newsprint on how to fiddle taxes and get "allowances" from the state.



I may be cynical but I suspect that all these "leaked" reports and surveys of how inefficient public sector organisations like the civil service and the NHS are will stop around June 2010 - after the Tories scrape into power. If by some miracle New Labour stay in power the doom and gloom merchants will continue their propaganda campaign.

Answer 3

The reason for "public sector waste" is that much of the spending on the NHS and on education, for example, has been siphoned off to the private sector.



See source 1, on the NHS IT programme designed to computerise all patient records - £12bn and rising, perhaps with an estimated final cost of £30bn. This was initially handed to Fujitsu, but they pulled out, costing the NHS another £2.3m so far in legal costs.



Then there is Building Schools for the Future and PFI (Private Finance Initiative) schemes - all of which hand over the running of buildings for a guaranteed profit to a private company. This was reported in the Channel 4 documentary Dispatches in 2006. A council had closed down a middle school but was still paying for school meals for the empty school, all because its catering and maintenance had been handed over to a contract by the private sector.



Its not public sector waste, it is private sector greed which is causing the problem.



All funding should be publicly accountable to make sure it does deliver value for money. However, New Labour, like the Tories and the Lib Dems, have sold out to big business and no longer represent the interests of the public. (source 2)



Then there is the ID cards fiasco . . . the list goes on.



Finally - we need a new party to represent ordinary people. (source 3)



Kevin - I agree with you about the internal market in the NHS (created by the Tories) and this has continued with Foundation Trusts (New Labour's name for competition and privatisation between Trusts, i.e. inefficient and expensive). However, the NHS was hugely efficient before 1979 and is still more efficient than the US healthcare system. Before 1979 admin counted for less than 10% of NHS costs, now it is 20%. It is not the public sector model which is inefficient, it is the private sector model which increases bureaucracy and waste, introducing more middlemen. (I also work for the NHS). - see source 4 for an alternative.

Answer 4

Sorry, if you are daft enough to believe everything the press says there is no hope for you.



Let me be clear, I detest the current government but I do get annoyed when the gutter press runs stories like this which are clearly aimed at swaying the voters against a particular party. I worked for over twenty years in the NHS. First as a nurse and then as a manager. I left to form my own health care related company in part at least because I was appalled at the waste in the NHS. Waste which squandered money on political whims and lavish offices for the chair of the trust and senior officers while direct patient care was starved of resources. Millions spent on creating a market economy within the NHS managed by a group of people who could not manage their way out of a paper bag! The only rules appeared to be; 1. Don't do anything to embarrass the Chair or Non Executives, 2. be within budget irrespective of what services you had to cut. 3. Cook the books creatively so you don't fail to hit your targets!



Nothing new about public sector waste. Samuel Pepys was instrumental in bringing about reform of naval dockyards because of waste and corruption. Short term policy for politicians desperate to stay in power has always made for bad public expenditure. Not Labour's fault, nor the Tories. Until government is no longer a provider of public services and moves to become the purchaser and quality controller it will always continue.

Answer 5

Same Tory crap. Same bullsh*t used as an excuse to cut public services and benefits for the needy in order to "balance the books", whilst still funding tax cuts for the rich. Don't worry, your precious Tories will soon cut all that public sector "waste". Just don't expect any decent public services and don't expect the economy to recover for another decade at least. Anyone would think it was the public sector that caused the recession; that was the greedy private banking sector. Nothing will be done to control them.

Answer 6

Nothing to control it? Newscorp Labor PLC have beavered away, right through their time in office, facilitating the looting of public funds by 'consultants' like McKinsey and Dr Foster, unnecessarily privatising public work which has resulted in the same looting, selling public assets to their fellow crooks at knockdown prices, etc.



In other words, they have learned the lessons of Thatcher and Major's 18 years of similar looting really well.



They should all be put behind bars. So should the private sector fat cats who benefited from these corrupt policies.

Answer 7

it rather is via the fact the government workers are among the poorest appearing interior the working sector. they won't proceed to exist in a gadget it is overall performance based so that they take jobs the place they're so risk-free that they could cope with the very human beings producing the tax base to pay them like crap and nonetheless shop their interest. that's genuine no longer all are like this however the overwhelming majority are. Why no longer supply me thousands and thousands of governement money and that i'll spend it additionally. that's wasted via fact we don't get our money's properly worth.

Answer 8

it is by way of fact the government workers are among the poorest appearing interior the working sector. they might no longer proceed to exist in a device this is overall performance based so that they take jobs the place they are so risk-free that they are able to handle the very human beings producing the tax base to pay them like crap and nonetheless shop their job. it is real no longer all are like this however the overwhelming majority are. Why no longer supply me thousands and thousands of governement money and that i'll spend it additionally. it is wasted by way of fact we don't get our money's worth.

Answer 9

Whilst we were in a booming economy it didn't really matter - people weren't looking too closely at what the government was spending where. Also, when they're voting themselves pay rises at every opportunity, and claiming all the expenses they can, it's not really much of a surprise that few people in the Commons raised the issue of wasted money. I guess it also keeps unemployment figures down, if you're employing a lot of people to do, well, nothing much.

Answer 10

It is what they do every time they come to power. Strange how they can come up with this just before the Election. The Unions will go on strike anyway so they will back down. Different matter when the Tories get in though.

Answer 11

their expenses and their banking bonuses have to come from somewhere don't they ?