“Do less, better” was never a slogan likely to set pulses racing. Nevertheless, when it was adopted by the new first minister Jack McConnell in 2001 it made a kind of sense.
McConnell had come in on the back of Henry McLeish’s resignation, following a messy spell in which Labour’s Scottish government was widely seen to be frenetically busy but without much coherent sense of purpose. The new man wanted to bring focus and discipline to his administration.
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