The sclerosis of the British public service is evident to any observant person who works in it or has any contact with it. Part of this sclerosis derives from the piles of official rubbish that emerge daily from Whitehall, but a good part also arises locally, from the rules and procedures that small bureaucracies impose upon themselves. The effect of these rules (and I suspect their purpose, too) is to generate work without ever achieving its ostensible purpose: a form of employment insurance. Everyone is busy, but no one does anything.
For example, as a hospital doctor, I find it increasingly difficult to speak to my consultant colleagues by telephone. It is not that they are unwilling to speak to me – on the contrary. Rather, the people whose job it is to answer the telephone have become ever more obstructive. Whereas not many years ago I would get straight through to them, more or less, it now sometimes takes several days before I can speak to them, and hours of frustrating effort as well as lost temper.
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