MAYBE it’s just a case of classic British understatement.
When the new Labour government formed a plan to deliver better value for taxpayers’ hard-earned cash, they came up with the Office for Value for Money.
It is a group of around 20 civil servants squirrelled away in a dusty corner of the Treasury, chaired by a worthy quangocrat.
What do our American cousins do when faced with the same task?
Enter Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
These two billionaire entrepreneurs, who have a track record of ripping up red tape, have been announced as heading up a so-called Department of Government Efficiency — DOGE — for incoming President Donald Trump.
DOGE’s role wil be to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies”.
And the department won’t mess around.
All of this is to be done by Independence Day, July 4, 2026.
The contrast of these two approaches could not be more stark.
OVfM will be chaired by David Goldstone, the man who brought you the HS2 white elephant and the astronomically expensive plan to restore Parliament’s historic buildings.
We’ll likely see much shuffling of papers between Whitehall departments.
Expect lengthy reports that cost more than the savings they recommend.
Don’t be surprised if they hold meetings about meetings, to discuss future meetings.
We could do something similar here, if we were willing to break out of the mindset that the civil service knows best
John O'Connell
Yes Minister eat your heart out.
How about Musk?
The man who launches rockets into space — and catches them out of thin air with robotic arms when they return to Earth — with a team of just 5,000 people.
Compare that to the state-run Nasa, which has a staff of more than 18,000.
He’ll be joined by Ramaswamy, who founded a pharmaceutical company just ten years ago which is now worth billions after developing a host of innovative drugs.
We could do something similar here, if we were willing to break out of the mindset that the civil service knows best.
Britain is full of wildly talented entrepreneurs, who deliver exciting services and products along with their dedicated staff.
We should celebrate that success more loudly, and feel pride in asking for their help in shrinking the waistline of our bloated state.
I reckon their task would be straightforward, at least to start with.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance would be happy to provide its back catalogue of wasteful spending revelations — £200,000 to “decolonise” the work of British hero Robert Louis Stevenson?
How about £269,000 on acupuncture and aromatherapy?
Or £200,000 spent researching the impact of Star Wars on climate change?
Then there is £4million spent by defence officials on hotels, bars, taxis, fast food and restaurants, £2million spent by local councils on adult cycling lessons.
Millions of pounds and a countless number of hours wasted on staff support groups across the public sector.
A bonkers £650,000 spent on celebrating Pride Month in just one year alone, £800,000 on painting the Prime Minister’s plane, £30,000 on rebranding the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Some will say this is small beer, or a rounding error, forgetting the age-old wisdom that when you save the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.
But even so, let’s try some bigger savings.
Whether it’s billions of pounds or hundreds of pounds, it’s all taxpayers’ money
John O'Connell
What about the £100million-plus cost of the proposed Sheephouse Wood Bat Protection Structure in Buckinghamshire — aka the “bat shed” — to protect bats from flying into HS2?
Or the £34million spent by the police on spin doctors?
And the £52million spent by councils on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion staff?
Or the £13.9billion wasted on fraud and error by the Department for Work and Pensions in just one year.
Where would these ridiculous money pits sit on Musk’s planned leaderboard for the “most insanely dumb spending”?
And they say there’s no more fat to trim.
Whether it’s billions of pounds or hundreds of pounds, it’s all taxpayers’ money. It all came from your hard work.
Across the public sector, from Whitehall to town halls, the attitude of the nation’s pen pushers is that there really is a magic money tree.
They know taxpayers will always be there to bail them out.
So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that instead of changing the mindset of the public sector towards value for money and respect for taxpayers, Labour is choosing to outsource this responsibility to yet another quango.
Call me sceptical, but this approach doesn’t sound anywhere near as dynamic as that about to be unleashed across the Atlantic.
Let’s hope the OVfM is successful. Because the Government will spend £1.2 trillion this year.
Incredibly, this is set to rise to £1.5trillion by 2029.
And that’s why they want to hike your taxes — because they can’t control themselves when they’re spending your hard-earned money.
When they tell you about difficult decisions, the truth is they’re dodging quite easy decisions.
Because they don’t want to upset their friends in cushy public sector jobs with pensions that normal folk could never even dream of.
Who knows, maybe Elon will fail. Perhaps some public institutions are beyond saving.
But you can be sure he will give it an almighty try, applying the same practices as he does to his humanity-enhancing businesses.
While at home?
Well, if you present the establishment with a problem, they will invariably tell you that the establishment can fix it themselves.
Good luck with that.
