These are not my words.. they appeared today in response to a 2 hour long blog/open discussion hosted by The Guardian newspaper here in the UK about local economic development and inward investment. Effectively a talking shop on how best to approach increasing employment and getting foreign owned companies to invest in places outside of London.
As I say, they are not my words (in fact they belong to someone named 'simsum' on the Guardian site).. but I must say I agree with almost every last one of them. And I am qualified to say that given that half of my work involves exposure to people working for local authorities and charged with 'creating' employment!
There is a very good reason that councils are referred to as "simple shoppers" by the private sector because they have absolutely no idea how to create wealth, jobs, opportunities or manage resources effectively. That is the reason they work for the council because they had/have no ambition or ability other than to either obtain a job with a council to stay the course for life or perhaps stay long enouhg in that council to eventually get bumped up the greasy pole by route of drinking with the boss, saying all the right "buzz words" at the right time or the charity work scam!
Numerous examples exist of how housing associations/councils have jumped into bed with PFI contracts without the ability to adequately seek an alternative for the taxpayers. Why? because they simply don't have the skills or ability to do so that is why they work for councils.
I have two relatives who are jokingly referred to as a deputy and chief exec (why these titles exist in local authorities apart from the fact it allows the scam of paying themselves obscene salaries and then claim it is on a par with the private sector i will never know).
What exactly is localism? Does anyone know? Does anyone know how it is applied to the long suffering taxpayers?
How will localism really work when the threat of central government oversight is being waived about by eric pickles like a kebab about to be stuffed in his fat face!
If local councils were able to create jobs, growth, real savings for taxpayers do you think they would be working at the council?
What we have are councils up and down the country who are unable to create anything other than council job hoping managers and fat redundancies at the taxpayers expense. It don't matter to them because it is not their money unlike the private sector entrepreneur who has a personal stake in his creation.
Do all the European jollies and paid for corporate days out really help the local economy and if so how?
The best thing councils and councillors can do is to shuffle paper around and stay out of the way of real wealth creators.
These words come hot on the heels of news this week that a fraudulent company has taken a bunch of headteachers for idiots to the tune of around £300m in a technology and equipment leasing scheme - the headteachers claimed that they were told they could have loads of IT resources and didn't have to pay much for them as an anonymous donor had stumped up most of the money. When they signed the leases (for the full amounts per month - doh!!!) the company then disappeared and they were left with big bills. Some even ended up paying 4 to 5 times what the equipment was worth.
What happened to the teachers? Sacked? No, not really - they have retired on their pensions. Only happens in the public sector! Here's the link
I rest my case.
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