Most who observe and comment on our woefully incompetent public sector know; government departments are not renowned for their expediency of operation…
In many ways government departments and agencies have turned procrastination, service delivery indifference and (often) bear faced lies into something of an art form. This now all too prevalent national pastime and shirk ethic stands in the way of so many of our much-needed public services.
The military, the National Health Service, our legal system, our education system et al are all stymied from efficiency of delivery. A failing usually caused by, the bureaucratic ineptitude in Whitehall, certainly not the ‘workshy’ front line. It is therefore hardly surprising to see the MOD self-preservation society trying to manipulate the media into believing, a comment by the Duke of York is some sort of national incident.
BBC News: The Duke of York has criticised Ministry of Defence chiefs for failing to “get off their fat backsides” over ordering armoured vehicles. (Read more)
Military operations over recent years have continuously suffered from the lack of suitable equipment, or the expedient supply of equipment for particular tasks. The provision of the Universal Engineering British built Ranger Armoured Vehicle is just one example in point.
We have had soldiers who are obliged to buy items of kit to supplement poor personal issue, we have seen the adoption of ‘state of the art’ solutions delayed for years, for want of slow-moving MOD type approval processes. We have projects paid for from taxpayers cash, snowball in cost from millions to billions. In addition, we’re obliged to go ahead with ship builds we can no longer afford, we have resources that were, a few short years ago, an absolute necessity and now miraculously, are simply superfluous to requirements. And what is the usual common denominator in all this? The ineptitude and incompetence of civil servants!
As these civil service tossers (and government ministers) sit bemoaning the difficulties around claiming inflated expenses, they would do well to remember that; despite HRH Andy being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and of privalaged parentage, at least he made the effort to get of his arse and do something in service of his country, even though he didn’t have to.
Whilst Muppets sit on Defence, continue polishing their self-inflated egos and sense of self-importance, our servicemen and woman are laying down their lives. Often all for want of suitable equipment, to (rightly or wrongly) carry out the tasks set them by even more self-indulgent ministers and civil servants. Those same servants who usually serve very little but themselves!
Related Articles
- Duke of York launches scathing attack on ‘hopeless’ MoD (telegraph.co.uk)
- Prince attacks MoD over vehicles (bbc.co.uk)
- Prince Andrew: MoD “Hopeless” Over Rangers (news.sky.com)
- Prince Andrew brands MoD ‘hopeless’ (telegraph.co.uk)
- Andy lashes fat backsides at MoD (thesun.co.uk)
Dave's Bankside Babble 
It would be interesting to know more on incompetence MrG. I’ve studied it as an academic and tend to agree the big issue is that one can’t do anything about one’s own incompetence without being able to recognise it. We must have come across many examples as cops. My favourite concerns MacArthur Wheeler, who was surprised to be arrested in the evening after two successful armed bank raids during the day. He could not believe he had been identified from CCTV footage as he had covered his face with lemon juice to make himself invisible to such technology.
I believe something as chronic and deep is in play in general and bureaucratic incompetence. I have two main lines of enquiry:
1. An assessment of our ‘leaders’ – what are their IQs, backgrounds, real suitability …
2. Can we identify in the general group people with reasonable intelligence who are still hapless?
There is much more known on the above than most know, and it’s nearly all not good news.
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Many would say; it is far too easy to sit at the bottom of the dung heep rubbishing the efforts of those dung beetles higher up the pile. That may be the case however, it is also easier to be warm and happy in your honest toil at the bottom, than teetering on the top in constant search for better smells in pastures new!
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