The resignation of Cynthia Bower, the head of the Care Quality Commission, says the Failygraph would have been merited even without its exposure of the scandalous failings of the abortion system.

But only up to a point, Lord Copper. This ghastly woman came to notoriety in June last year, over the Winterbourne View residential hospital scandal. Before that, Bower - on a salary in order of £215,000, more than the prime minister – had been chief executive ofStafford NHS Trust, where she had presided over utter catastrophe.

View full article here

Almost beyond belief - but exasperatingly indicative of the calibre of the average "quango hopper".

That these parasites can leap from public body to public body with such self evident ease to gorge and inflate themselves in this fashion shows that we are sorely lacking in the bug spray department.

Rather reminds me of a story Mountbatten told against himself.

He had just surfaced, after the sinking of the Kelly when the Chief Stoker bobbed up nearby.

"Have you noticed, Sir" he asked "how on these occasions the scum always rises to the top"

Not forgetting that Lin Homer had previously been the chief exec of Birmingham City council and presided of the 'banana republic' voting fraud.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... d-job.html


But don't expect the UKBA to be any better under its new chief exec, because he is a self confessed fan of Common Purpose (and no doubt a graduate of it).

"I like Common Purpose's Collab process, which brings together a diverse group of organisations into networks. This particular evaluation report relates to using the approach to improve the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and their families; and in my view, this approach would lend itself well to building local alignment for community budgets. Common Purpose has also developed a broader approach to local partnership platforms."

http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=29191930

But a fall in quality is surely acceptable if diversity is to be increased at senior levels. That thirty percent target doesn't meet itself!

One might note that the term "failure", like the term "beauty", is in the eye of the beholder. While you and many other Mere Citizens of your island nation may indeed think that Ms. Homer has failed in each of her previous positions, it is quite probable that what you call "failure" is instead considered unqualified success by your Betters. And let me assure you that your Betters care not one whit for ANY opinion by their slaves. In fact, one should expect a visit from the Rights Police over this vile article which has so clearly defamed her...

I do find it interesting and appropriate, though, that she is apparently named after an American television animated character - Homer - "D'oh!"

Richard, as someone who works in the Corporate world I echo your feelings about the creeping incompetence. And at the risk of being accused of sexism, it is particularly difficult addressing incompetent women. Its hard enough getting rid of useless men, but there are added dimensions when quotas are used to fill vacancies.

However not all the corporate world is like this. And for me the dividing line and the solution is simple. Competition. In areas where regulators haven't quite figured out how to completely cripple them, and therefore real competition still exists, only the best survive with real innovation driving their company's. Think engineering led manufactures such as Rolls Royce, JCB, Cummins Engine Co, all world leaders, all with major manufacturing operations in the UK and world wide. Then there are all the suppliers and service companies that keep these operations well supplied and serviced. None of the overpaid tossers you have mentioned above would get a job in any of these organisations simply because everyone needs to deliver or they are out.

Its only when Tax Payers money is involved where we see the hanger-on class gravitating to as if they were born with an inbuilt radar. They are good at spending, but useless at creating. Our political class keep failing to resolve this issue as they keep confusing the terms choice and competition. Bit like we have a choice of television channels and therefore there is competition. The reality is we still have to pay for the BBC weather we chose it or not. This type of political choice is rife but delivers only incompetence.

I was wondering if you'd approach this dual horror story. Of course these are only the ones we actually hear about - there are countless others throughout the whole public administration; from senior police officers to lowly town planners - where incompetence, overspending, colossal waste and useless job creation is the norm and are considered 'par for the course'.

Our politicians, constantly bang on about useless bankers and bonuses and corporate wastefulness - and then turn a blind eye to these monstrous imbeciles - or do they not recognize this shambles? I wouldn't like to say - it takes one to know one and it takes one to recognize one - all divs together and 'look after your own' - it looks like from here.

God knows, a department in the middle of a [borders agency]catastrophe presided over by a woman who is as clueless as lin Homer, who then jumps ship and reappears in a similar department which is itself imploding because of a massive unnecessary Labour inspired reorganisation [between the Inland revenue and the customs and excise] and full of useless apparats who do not know how to read the time of day - let alone how to assess an individual tax return form - what the hell is going on?

Jobs for equalities sake - another classic Frankfurt School manoeuvre, thank you Mad Hattie, the EU and the unions.

Osborne thinks she is OK......................................nuff said [would you trust Homer with cleaning duties in her own home? - mind you - she can afford an army of cleaners to do the home chores anyway - and how the 'other half live'].

Government sanctioned public embezzlement - it should be an offence but nowadays it is the 'new order' - and all the way to the top and Barroso.


Lordy, I think I feel the need of a 'battle cruiser' and something in a glass.

With companies, there are corrective feedback mechanisms which don't always work perfectly but work in the end. They don't work perfectly because for example there are companies such as mobile phone companies who couldn't care less about their customers, they expect some churn, but they are all pretty much the same. There are celebrity CEOs and all sorts of other abuses.

But basically, if they can't make or sell products people want and can afford, sales drop, customers complain, shareholders complain, and if they can't sort their act out, they go bust.

With public bodies, the corrective feedback mechanisms simply aren't there and they can't really go bust. There's no link between the people who pay, what they want and the services provided. If the government sees high public sector employment as a means of massaging employment figures, as I suspect they do, we have another distortion.

People behave in accord with their incentives and if they have perverse incentives or are allowed to dictate their own incentives, the results are predictable.

I'd love to know how the interviews go for these jobs:

"Lin, thank you for that presentation. Given that you presided over a catalogue of chaos and mismanagement at the Border Agency, you are clearly the woman to wreak havoc at the Inland Revenue."

The mind does not so much boggle as turn cartwheels of disbelief.

I think it's great the imbecile is now in charge of the Revenue, hopefully total chaos ensues....

Mate of mine had direct dealings with Hector Sants of the FSA......his opinion is unprintable.

Fuckwits tend to hire other fuckwits and we all know all our politicians are total fuckwits.

Total chaos will indeed most likely ensue. However, I would bet that I could easily guess which direction said chaos will trend. And I do not think you will be so joyful when it does so...

Without going into a lot of boring personal detail, HMRC could hardly be more incompetent in the future than what it is now.

There is always a chance though.......

But isn't she a WHITE female? Surely females cannot be very high on your Preferred Species totem pole. Over here, they are almost at the bottom, below the Hispanics, the Blacks, and the LGBTs. Of course, when you have a female Black Hispanic LGBT, THEN you got it made!

... In a wheelchair? Bingo! Although, a non-English speaker commuting from Magadishu would do well. Ironically, the two founders of the Pispore Public Sector Management School were men*: him and him.

*They probably still are.