IF there's one thing the last 11 years of a Labour administration should teach us, it's that governments just aren't very good at getting things done.
Despite seemingly unlimited bright ideas, and a healthy Commons majority throughout, Labour's record of achievement in office is decidedly modest.
This is not because of any lack of ambition; indeed Ministers have made clear their intention of int
erfering with every aspect of citizens' lives – from regulating the temperature of our bathwater to instructing us what bedtime books to read to our children.
But time and again the latest new initiative, trumpeted to much fanfare, goes absolutely nowhere.
Why should this be so? One simple reason is the distinct lack of managerial competence within ministerial ranks.
Labour, and to be fair the Conservatives too, are packed full of very posh, very clever people who have never run anything more complex than the junior common room of an Oxford college.
They move effortlessly from university to a job with a think-tank or trade union research department, before being parachuted into a safe parliamentary seat.
The next minute they are supposed to be running the health service, the education department or the Treasury – with entirely predictable results.
We've become so immune to the endless cycle of brilliantly presented policy announcements followed by dismal failure, that the public has simply stopped listening.
Take for example Gordon Brown's latest initiative to revive the housing market by suspending stamp duty on cheaper properties. This was supposed to be a key plank in Gordon's great autumn fightback, but it created hardly a ripple. Britain's homeowners gave a collective shrug of the shoulders, and I'd be astonished if it heralds any big change in Brown's dismal poll ratings.
Of course, it was partly government meddling that created the housing crisis in the first place. The then housing minister, Yvette Cooper, one of those posh, clever people with absolutely no experience, steamrollered through the introduction of Home Information Packs in the teeth of dire warnings from people who had worked in the housing industry all their lives.
The result has been what the Law Society and Which? called "the worse piece of consumer legislation in 50 years". HIPs are yet another costly, bureaucratic hoop for house sellers to jump through at a time when the market is collapsing.
Cooper was rewarded with promotion to Chief Secretary of the Treasury and is even tipped as Britain's first female Chancellor of the Exchequer. Heaven help us!
Maybe the answer is to ban the under-40s from becoming MPs – then these bright young things will have to go out and earn a living in the real world before inflicting their ideas on the rest of us.
Perhaps then Ministers would have gained experience in actually getting things done – and the wisdom to know that sometimes it is better to leave well alone.
Hats off to Palin According to the Left in America, Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin can't possibly do such an important job because she is an unsophisticated hick, a mother-of-five, including a Down's syndrome boy, and because her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant.
Isn't it odd that those who are always bashing on about sexism, tolerance and compassion are invariably among the most sexist, intolerant and least compassionate people around?
I've just finished watching Palin's barnstorming speech to the Republican convention and for a while I couldn't think who she reminded me of. Then it hit me – tough woman, small-town roots, unafraid to take on entrenched political elites.
If indeed Palin is America's answer to Margaret Thatcher, my only advice is – hold onto your hats!
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