There's an interesting piece by Denis MacShane in today's Telegraph:

In the Commons every Wednesday, Tory MPs rain abuse on the Prime Minister because, in some corner of their constituency, there is a check on spending as ministers try to get some control over mismanaged public finances.

But, far from applauding these efforts to get value for taxpayers' money, Conservative MPs have become welfare-state junkies, demanding ever more taxpayers' money to be spent on their constituents.

No single-issue pressure group, no disgruntled local lobby leaves the surgery of a Tory MP without the promise that the local Member will stand up in the Commons and harass ministers into pledges of more spending to satiate the incessant demand of British citizens for taxpayers' money to flow their way.

I don't agree with everything he writes, and much of it is tendentious, but in that fundamental point he is surely correct. There are few things more depressing at the moment than what seems like the now daily ritual of a Tory spokesman prostrating himself before some public sector money grabber, complaining that something or other is closing or isn't happening.

MacShane has some interesting examples of the Whitehall mindset:

As a new junior minister, I suggested at a meeting that we could save money by using Ryanair or easyJet for European travel.

Senior colleagues looked at me with disdain, as if I had told them to take the No 24 bus up Whitehall for a meeting instead of travelling 200 yards in a ministerial car.

Recently I was told that social-service visits to elderly people in South Yorkshire could cost up to £1,000 a week.

When I pointed out politely that this amounted to £52,000 a year, and for half that cost an elderly person could hire a young person from Poland or Bulgaria as a live-in companion, I was looked at as if a dog had done its business in front of town hall officials.

When I asked what the hourly cost of a social service visit was, I was told £12. The worker only gets £6, so where does the other £6 go? Town hall and NHS flab is waiting to be cut.

On Aer Lingus last Friday, flying to Dublin for Any Questions?, I was charged £1.30 for a cup of tea.

The company is now in the black and competing with Michael O'Leary's Ryanair by being attentive to customers, but also making clear that co-payment for services beyond the basic is now a norm. Is this really unthinkable for some of our public services?