James Forsyth James Forsyth

The productive and the unproductive

Camilla Cavendish’s column in The Times today contains a message that the right urgently needs to get across before the cuts debate kicks off in earnest:

“There are two public sectors in Britain today: the “front line” that does jobs the public understands, often for low to middling wages, and the “back room” that is firmly on the gravy train. The back-room boys are using the front line as human shields in a battle for self-preservation.”

This might be a bit simplistic but it contains a lot of truth and, politically, makes it far harder for the left to scream blue murder at any suggested cut.

P.S. This is an absolute disgrace: “One chief executive, John Foster, left Wakefield Council with a £340,000 payoff, to be hired only a month later by Islington.”

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