A week really is a long time in politics

On Friday 19^th July this appeared on this very blog: '... creating a single independent procurement organisation for central civil government...'  noting, amongst other things the report Making Public Service Markets Work from the  Institute for Government and that that very day the Public Administration Select Committee had published a two volume report on its investigation into Government Procurement and suggested that with these two reports now public the issue they covered "would surely get the proper attention that it deserves .."

Indeed it must have done, because a scant 5 days later a Cabinet Office Press Release informs us that New Whitehall central buying service to save more for taxpayers

“The new integrated commercial service will be established in autumn 2013, building on the evolution of Government Procurement Service over the last few years. It will deliver savings by ensuring that government acts as a true single customer”.

That is of course the Cabinet Office run GPS

In the Press Release Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office said:

“This government’s commercial reforms have already saved the taxpayer £3.8 billion. But hard-working families expect us to go further. The new Crown Commercial Service will ensure a step change in our commercial capability, giving government a much tighter grip on all aspects of its commercial performance, from market engagement through to contract management”.

and right at the foot of the Press Release:-

Notes to editors

The Crown Commercial Service will bring together the Government Procurement Service and other Cabinet Office teams.

Francis Maude Does Maths

From The Sun:

BRITAIN'S biggest public sector union last night voted for a crazy crippling strike over pension changes — sparking fears of a new Winter of Discontent.

But less than a QUARTER of Unison members — including nurses, social workers, paramedics and teaching assistants — backed the mass walkout on November 30. Of 1.1 million people balloted, only 29 per cent actually voted — backing the strike by 245,358 to 70,253...

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the figures showed "extremely limited support". He added: "The new generous settlement is beyond the dreams of most private employees. I urge the trade unions to devote their energy to reaching agreement and not to unnecessary and damaging strike action."

To summarise:
Total turnout: 29%
'Yes' votes out of all votes cast: 78%
Percentage of all eligible voters who voted 'Yes': 22.3%.
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Let's compare this with the General Election Result 2010:

To summarise:
Total turnout: 65.1%
Tory votes out of all votes cast: 36.1%
Percentage of all eligible voters who voted Tory: 23.5%
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As it happens, I agree with Mr Maude that a lot of public sector pensions are far too generous - and the more senior the post, the greedier they get, with MPs like Mr Maude among the greediest. I do not support the strikers (although I accept that they have the right to strike if they so wish). But if I were Mr Maude, I wouldn't go round reminding people that his government has "extremely limited support"

Francis Maude

Word* Of The Week - UPDATE

I nominated "shroud waving" as Word* Of The Week on Wednesday and I am pleased to report that it's catching on. From the BBC:

Mr Yates, who is Britain's most senior anti-terrorist officer, was reported to have made the comments at a private meeting during the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) annual conference in Manchester on Thursday.

According to the reports, he said cutting 25% from the police budget risked weakening defences against al-Qaeda and claimed counter-terrorism officers would need to make savings in the region of £150m.

But [Cabinet Office Minister] Mr Maude said: "I'd like to avoid public servants doing this kind of shroud waving in public**. There is a special responsibility on all public servants to be really careful what we say and what we do. It's going to be pretty important for people who are managing big public services like police forces to focus on cutting out unnecessary costs, driving down costs, being as efficient as they possibly can before they even begin to contemplate talking about alarming the public in this kind of way."

* OK, it's two words.

** OK, Yatesy made the comments in private, but knowing full well that they would become public.