If our governing bodies throughout the UK were commercial, they wouldn’t last a year. If one considers that we the taxpayers are buying a service from what amounts to be a conglomerate, we should not be subjected to all these changes in policy because decisions have been spur of the moment reaction, rather than intelligent and reasoned proposals. No company would allow a situation where the infighting would reach the levels that it has done in Westminster and Stormont, not for the benefit of the customer, but because of the selfish, self-seeking attitude, lack of responsibility, total ineptitude, and the lack of an internal leadership which is strong enough to inhibit this type of behaviour. The Board of Directors of our Parliamentary companies, in control of the overall conduct of Parliament, rests I believe with one man, the Speaker, rather than a Board of Directors
Psychologically the shenanigans going on in these two Parliaments are responsible for the total apathy of the electorate, or in this parlance the customers. Economically the system is over the staffed, and under-qualified due to a high level of the staff being inexperienced. On a value for money basis the level of waste is disproportionate to anything that is likely to be seen in the commercial field. Notions are put into practice in which in themselves cost millions because in many respects they are changing new for old, unnecessarily and without forethought. Every time you sponsor a new department the cost level must rise because everything has to be newly found, when in fact in some instances the new is less efficient than the old, which was arrived at by attrition over time.
If you’re running a commercial business you don’t get the customers to pick the staff, that is done in-house, and by a board of experienced professionals. I think one of the failures of our current system is that there is no longer a pool of older, wiser and experienced politicians to pick from, and to do the picking. Similarly, the method of candidate selection seems to be arbitrary and more to do with personality, than with competence and experience. I am aware that the electorate in the long run is the arbiter, but the quality of the selection offered is important, that is something that the electorate has neither the experience nor the resources to check.
History has taught us that no system is perfect, but that doesn’t mean that an overhaul of the system on the basis of economy, experience and competence shouldn’t be attempted.