Weed out woke
LARGE parts of our supposedly “best in the world” civil service are idle, partisan and disgracefully obstructive to Tory policies millions support.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was right yesterday to call out the vast bloat in this ever-expanding penpusher army.
We just hope his remedy works.
Whitehall’s wasteful overmanning is never more obvious than in its legions of well-paid “diversity and inclusion” staff, their very existence a woke exercise in box-ticking and job creation which does nothing to improve the running of the country.
Mr Hunt wants them whittled down one by one as he reduces civil service numbers to pre-Covid levels.
Fine. Except if they are that dispensable, and they are, why not save taxpayers a fortune instantly by culling the lot? Would anyone notice?
We liked, meanwhile, Mr Hunt’s optimism about our revised and much improved economic figures and his sound noises on getting tax down. Likewise his dismissal of doom-mongers claiming high taxes are with us for good.
But he does sometimes speak as if he hasn’t realised he is Chancellor.
The highest tax burden since the war is his to reduce.
And while his minions may have convinced him that doing so now would fuel inflation just as he is regaining control over it he will have to grasp the nettle before long.
He needs to put more money in Sun readers’ pockets — and soon.
Water torture
WATER bills are high enough. The service is often appalling.
So the utility giants’ proposal to hike households’ costs yet further to build reservoirs, fix leaks and stop polluting our rivers is obscene. We have a right to expect those already.
Water firms make incredible profits and pay executives jaw-dropping sums. The head of failing Thames Water will get £1.6million this year — and that’s without a bonus she gave up.
The regulator Ofwat now has to “forensically scrutinise” their investment plans. Let us remind it of its first duty, “to protect the interests of consumers”.
That will not be done by allowing us to be fleeced for another £84 a year to bail out an industry’s greed and incompetence.
Chalk one up
IT is blatantly unjust that killer fathers can retain control from jail over children they robbed of their mothers.
They can bar them from getting passports or make decisions on schooling.
So we are delighted Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is putting that right by backing our campaign for a Jade’s Law and enacting it.
A win for The Sun, and more importantly for kids who have suffered enough.
