Centre for Government Reform

The government’s flagship scheme to get the long-term unemployed into work is missing all its targets - as unearthed by @Govt_Reform and covered in The Times today. In true Sir Humphrey fashion, when DWP realised this they lowered the target citing “optimism bias”. Ironically, even the new lower target was missed. Good to speak to @NickFerrariLBC about the findings this morning

The theme of Reform's party conference kicking off today is 'The first 100 days of a Reform UK Government'. @Govt_Reform will be hosting a panel event with Danny Kruger and Malcolm Offord on taking on the Blob. It’ll take place on the final day, just before Farage’s closing speech. If we are to lift this country out of the doldrums, there is nothing more vital than overcoming the bureaucratic inertia and resistance that has for too long held this country back. We need radical change, and - crucially - we need to work out how to actually implement it. At this event, we'll discuss how. Do join us

My take on what’s gone wrong with our politics: An elite class, claiming an expertise they often don’t possess, and a moral high ground they do not deserve, has tried to tell us little people how things should be done. By making reference to spurious and outdated frameworks they often barely understand – whether international law or human rights – they have tried to dictate, in always the most supercilious of tones, that this is simply the way things must be. Rather than level with the public, and point out the range of options open to us on any given issue and the trade-offs involved, they have sought to present only one acceptable outcome. An asylum policy that would require us to derogate or withdraw from international treaties or require the repeal of domestic legislation is not even presented as an available option. Such is the fear in the governing class that the public, if given a choice, might make the wrong one.

I have written about this before in suggesting that the London weighting of c.£5,000 should be removed for civil servants who refuse to come in to the office. *Some* will absolutely choose to leave if the whip was cracked. But the idea the civil service would be on the verge of collapse is laughable. The vast majority would stay because they wouldn’t want/be able to move into the private sector. And in fact, enforcing the rules would usefully serve as a means to reduce headcount (which almost everyone agrees needs to come drastically down) when the least committed officials do choose to leave