Why do we think state provision of anything is superior?

Faceless bureaucracy costs lives


"I've paid my taxes"

"Yes, I'm sure you have. Have you ever thought that this might be exactly why you are getting such a disappointing service?"

It’s becoming ever more obvious that many in Britain are wedded to a model of “State provision is better” It’s becoming ever more obvious that these people are wrong.

Whether in fields of health or education the cry goes up “private provision is wrong” “it’s unfair” “it’s unequal” “it’s immoral” “unfair advantage” “exclusive” “divisive” and so on.

Let’s first be clear about the word better. Something can be better than something else either in terms of effectiveness (does it work?) or in terms of morality. However morality comes in many guises and for too many in Britain equality has become their totem of moral good, not effectiveness.

So in both the health divide and the educational gradient are bigger now than they ever have been. The policy of valuing equality actually succeeds in worsening inequality.

The life chances (Lifetime trajectory if you want the academic work for this) of a child born in a poor family in terms of illness risk and educational attainment are far less than those of a child born to a richer family. The health and education systems are achieving an increase in the gaps of wealth and health between rich and poor in the UK. Currently social class one have an average life expectancy about 10 years longer than social class 5. This is not a desirable outcome, nor is it inevitable. It is an inevitable result of a flawed morality of envy and equality that aims at bringing everyone down to a certain level.

Nothing can be achieved ever by levelling down. Brunel was not average, he was awkward, and a genius. Great Western Railway worked. The bureaucratic monster now running trains out of Paddington doesn’t.

Nelson was a maverick, who disobeyed commands, and thereby won the battle. He’d have been dead or court-martialled if he had lost, but he came from a time when people could take risks, and accept consequences. He didn’t think about health and safety, he though about leadership and his men.

Throughout history the people who have excelled, and made a difference have never been motivated by equality. They have been motivated by excellence, curiosity, awkwardness, joy of innovation. The seeds for this behaviour are good health and good intelligence, in all its multiple varieties. (Howard Gardner)

So we need a school system that nurtures these qualities, with freedom to explore, and to make mistakes. And we need a health system that treats people as it finds them, not as they should be.

And for human flourishing we need associations of individuals, not central diktats and blueprints. The current bureaucratic sclerosis destroying the NHS and British education are symptoms of the malaise in British public life. The democratic association of free agents needs to return. Rules should only be enacted for safety purposes, to protect us from others, not to protect us from ourselves, and not to try and make us or our offspring better.

Running parallel to this people must grow again, and accept consequences from their actions. Smoke all you like, but realise you run the risk of COPD, lung cancer, IHD, stroke, gangrene, impotence etc.

Secondly equality is not good for anything except mediocrity. The NHS consumes a world class amount of resources for a very mediocre service. It has pissed off providers and customers. And demoralised bureaucrats who frantically pull levers, and hold meetings, but realise the whole lot is full of sound and fury but signifies nothing.

The education service has bureaucratic games being played out. Baptism should be celebrated for what it is, not as a means to get your kid into the church school, which isn’t quite as bad as the others in the area.

Teachers need to be able to teach, and we need to tell the idiots on review panels that heads exclude kids for good reason, and for all our sakes- BACK YOUR HEAD-do not try to second guess him or her.

At present we have a very unequal and very unfair world. We have this because so much effort goes into equality, and to generalising this via centralised bureaucratic means.

The Left’s ideology of equality is at present a tattered rag. It can only achieve its goals by getting rid of the opposition, so there is no comparison. That’s why Labour look so hopeless, and why the NHS and education are going downhill. Dumbed down A levels in soft subjects, do not make for good doctors, engineers, physicists, historians, or linguists. They do make for a homogenous group of customer services managers who can smile, but cannot actually do anything, unless the protocol or policy allows it.

The right’s alternative discourse- local provision, the intelligent individual agent respected as him or herself, local adaptations, market trading, free movement of goods, skills and labour, is not yet fully articulated. It needs to be. Its results are actually fairer and more equitable, than trying to impose equality.

And maybe GPs leaving the NHS, and dealing directly with patients as customers, would actually be a good start on this process.