Robert Peston is a strange bloke. I was watching his interview on the Ten News with Sir Philip Green who made the point that the commercial incompetence of Government would put any private business to the wall. Green pointed out that vast sums of money can be saved for the taxpayer if government could learn to be efficient. But then, after the interview, Peston turns the whole issue around and says that Government should stop being “such a soft touch” and that Private business might just have to put up with lesser profits. Wrong. Green spells out the vast incompetence of Government and how it wastes OUR cash. It’s not about being “a soft touch”
WHY GOVERNMENT IS A SOFT TOUCH
Bookmark the permalink.
Or ” Business ” can just vacate the UK. Can someone remind me of Peston’s personal experience of running a business ?
I think he’s run a bath.
Isn’t this essentially about government negotiating large contracts?
Therefore the government should stop being such a soft touch, in Green’s view, to get better value and therefore the private suppliers will get less
It is not just about large contracts but about the appalling waste of our money generally.
Perhaps I’m missing something, the Government is spending MY money, I want them to get the best deal they can when they buy services from the private sector. The Government is not a charity, those who work in the private sector know that any organisation you provide services to will negotiate as hard as they can for the best deal.
No idiot walks into a car showroom and pays the price on the windscreen (except Peston and Flanders presumably).
I expect a discount, they know it and I know it, the negotiation is about how much. Go to any market in the 3rd world and you have to do the same, no one pays the asking price.
The BBC are morons.
I have worked in several govt depts.
Each Dept has it’s own little empire. I arrived in a dept and asked why we were not getting the same deal my last dept was for IT equipment. I was told that this dept had not negotiated it.
I ended up paying £200 per machine for my computers.
I could tell you tales that would make your hair curl.
I used to be in the forces, they pissed millions away on crap.
Martin,
Gambian saying “The first price is never the last” !
The BBC must know that when they buy Cocaine.
“BBC deputy director general made redundant and given astonishing £1m payoff”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319644/BBC-director-deputy-Mark-Byford-redundant.html#ixzz125niVZu9
“BBC’s Mark Byford made redundant”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8057696/BBCs-Mark-Byford-made-redundant.html
The problem with the BBC abillity to report the issues be it industrial/economic and political is that all its reporters are socialist/leftists/Marxists. They may call themselves ‘progressives’ but in fact they come from the left.
Hacks like Sackur and Marr see the political world from the left and so cannot report objectively to save their lives, the right wing are the enemy, they hate them and it clearly shows.
On the economic side the BBC reporters cannot fathom capitalism because they hate and despise capitalism like poison, their whole belief system is socialist in nature so they see economic issues from the left and it shows.
The problem with the BBC is that its staff are drawn from the left and so they see all issues from that perspective alone, with the best will in the world you cannot report on your mortal and hated enemy with any kind of objectivity and impartiality. You end up with perverted perspectives and slanted reporting’ in effect you get what you see and hear from the BBC and its why BBC reporting has become so rubbish and inaccurate and biased.
A person feeling hatred and bitterness toward another person will never truly understand that persons motives and beliefs, the beeboids bear an implaccable and burning lifelong hatred of their political enemies and their enemies beliefs and motives and it shows.
Show me a Marxist that truly understands capitalism, show me a socialist that truly understands democracy, show me a greenie that truly understands industry.
show me a tory who understands the liebore bbc
And what’s the missing word in all the media discussion of public sector “waste”?
Corruption.
No one pays 600% over the odds by accidents. This is all about kickbacks. Happens in business too; I used to buy print – its an area famed for kickbacks. Anyone with a budget of millions is going to be targetted in this way – some succomb. When I look at Green’s figures – the disparities between departments – this screams KICKBACKS!
It isn’t even just the kickbacks. There are elements of the old boys network with mutual back scratching that can go through several layers before the circle is closed (see Richard North’s exploration of Rachendra Pachauri’s links for an example of this). There is the ‘end of year budget spend’ because if a department doesn’t spend the money, they don’t get it in their budget next year.
Did anyone else here hear Eddie Mair’s interview with Chris Grayling yesterday before 6pm? Eddir mair seemed very concerned with the Government not having the full report up on its website ‘is that efficient’ he asked with a Paxmanesque sneer.
For a while Peston led me up the garden path, leading me to think that in spite of his irritating mannerisms, he might know one or two things about how businesses are run, or the difference between sound and bad business principles.
And then he comes out with this, that the hard-pressed private sector needs to put up with even more shafting. At least he has dispelled any doubts I had about the man being an utter know-nothing.
Pro-EU BBC is reluctant to report on spending by EU supremacists in Brussels:
Philip Johnston, ‘Telegraph’-
“As we wield the axe, Europe asks for more”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/philipjohnston/8056732/As-we-wield-the-axe-Europe-asks-for-more.html
And:
“Austerity, Euro Parliament style: 85 percent more champagne and oysters”
http://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2010/10/austerity-euro-parliament-style-85-percent-more-champagne-and-oysters.html
Thats typical of the BBC. Conduct an interview then turn on its head what’s been said.