Accountability is a dish best served cold. Whenever something goes badly wrong in the public sector, the following long sequence of events is inevitable:
1 An inquiry measures what happened against how things are supposed to happen on paper, and finds everyone did their best. It makes no comment on the system everyone did their best with, because (thank goodness) that’s not within its terms of reference.
2 The government says everyone did their best, and nothing’s wrong with the system, except that it was the same system in existence when the Opposition was last in government, so if there was anything wrong with the system – which there isn’t – it’s the Opposition’s fault.
3 The Opposition says that the system is stuffed and needs fixing, the officials are incompetent and need sacking, and the minister should resign.
With respect to copyright, I won't quote the complete nine point sequence until the full text is available online come the 21st of April. Suffice it to say that it provides an amusing look at the pathologies of Parliamentry systems while we spend our time ranting about a certain Presidential system.
1 comment:
Sounds a lot like England.
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