Time to reform one’s thinking

recent news coverage of bank malpractice and the 
monumental mess of Olympic security arrangements “delivered” by G4S reminded me of a Yorkshire Post feature article written a few months ago by the “think tank” Reform. It promoted the idea that the public sector should learn from the expertise and good practice of the private sector.

Working on the assumption that management and leadership in private organisations is invariably superior to that found in public ones, it opined that inspiring private sector “leaders” have “a lot to give” our public services in Britain. Watching the recent unconvincing performances by Nick Buckles, Bob Diamond and Jerry Del Missier before Commons Select Committees I began to wonder if reform should be having second thoughts about the wisdom of this big idea of theirs.

Plainly matters of good service, social morality and accountability come much lower on the agendas of private sector leaders like these than their principal interest – the acquisition of money. Outrageous levels of pay, huge bonuses and pay-offs for failure deserve all the public condemnation and contempt they receive. However, it is the unhealthy internal cultures they create and extensive economic fallout resulting from their actions that cause greatest harm. Much financial and social damage has been done to Britain by major banks and other private companies as diverse as G4S, News International and Southern Cross.

In the G4S case, the public sector, represented by our police and armed forces, face the thankless task of salvaging some order from the chaos threatened by the private company’s shortcomings. The majority of senior police officers and military top brass probably have quite a lot to teach their inadequate private sector counterparts about management and leadership. Certainly most frontline police and military personnel possess levels of expertise in challenging situations that the unreliable and inexperienced recruits hired by G4S cannot even begin to match.

Time for the “think tank” to think again? I believe it is.

From: Paul Emsley, Hellifield, North Yorkshire.

so, the Olympic Committee’s solution to a lack of delivery by their G4S security contractors is to use 3,500 service personnel to fill the gap. And then the Government can sack them!

The Chief of the Defence staff should be pounding on Mr Cameron’s door, but of course he’s on holiday now and the Liberal Democrats will be in charge. The CDS should certainly be threatening to resign over this atrocious misuse of our service personnel, some of whom are just back from active service and many of whom will be on standby to go, because of a lack of resources to fill the UK’s current operational and defence commitments. If successive governments hadn’t allowed our borders to become so porous, many of the security issues could have been reduced.

The truth is that although service personnel add a bit of colour to the Horse of the Year Show, Wimbledon and our sovereign’s trip on the Thames, they are trained to defend their country and to deal with immediate threats and dangers with force. Although they are more than capable of helping to manage crowds of people (the Falls Road; Baghdad, Nicosia; Kabul) in my opinion this is yet another abuse of their covenant. And where did another 10,000 Olympic event tickets suddenly appear from – and what are they for, the tiddly winks competition or the over-50s sack race?

Kipling’s Tommy Atkins would have been able to sum up this debacle far better than I; but the sentiments would have been the same.

From: John Eoin Douglas, Spey Terrace, Edinburgh.

what concerns me about the Olympics is not financial cost, road congestion, much overrated threats to civil liberties or the virtual monopolising of the airwaves with a monoculture of sporting “news”, rather it is the knowledge that if an event giving rise to national mourning occurred (like the death of Diana or the Queen Mother), the games could not be abandoned as a mark of respect due to contractual obligations.

Were the next few weeks to see the sad loss of any of our Royal Family or Lady Thatcher, the British people could never continue with the games in a spirit of enforced jollity. Yet, that is precisely what the promoters and sponsors of this tawdry sporting circus would attempt to ensure.

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

I wish the Olympics weren’t being staged in London, for they aren’t about sporting triumphs and values but about promoting London throughout the globe. Yet as a Northerner, I already think we’re too capital-orientated, with a costly jamboree making things worse.

So while I’ll cheer British victories, I’ll be glad when the London media says farewell to this hyped bonanza that isn’t so popular as people think. I mean 10 million saw the Olympic Torch – that’s fewer than voted Tory in 2010 or who watch The X Factor.

From: Jerry Pearlman, Leeds.

I wonder how many people in or about Leeds and even Yorkshire were at the XIV Olympiad in London in 1948 and who are also attending the 2012 Games?

I was and to prove it I attach copies of my entry tickets. I saw Fanny Blankers-Koen run in a final. I also still have the pennant which is on one of my walls.

I am attending diving and 
water polo on August 1 (Yorkshire Day).