Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Government the easy way: blame the people, not the system

There’s something about taking on a government role that makes even the most sensible man fancy himself as a vicar. It’s easy to get confused: you find yourself lurking around Parliament, which looks a bit like a church, you can give speeches that drone on a bit like sermons, and in the Commons, prayers are held at the start of each sitting. You end up preaching a little bit, not about how you want to reform the system, but about how people should run their own lives.

The confusion even seems to extend to those unelected ‘tsars’ that modern governments love appointing, with James Caan starting his job as social mobility tsar by giving parents a lecture about how to bring up their children. His big idea is that sensible parents shouldn’t try to get their children good work experience placements, leave them to flounder and then step in when they’ve spent a year failing to find a job.

The Telegraph reports this from its interview with the Dragon’s Den star:

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