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?

(1)

My CNE colleague, Johan Norberg, has an interesting - and optimistic - post on the new Swedish government:

...Don´t expect a liberal revolution. But if you compare it to other governments, my guess is that this government will lead Europe in reform.

It´s true that the moderates were...well...more moderate this time around. But on the other hand, the three other parties are more radical than they have been before, and will push in a more radical direction, for example centern wants more labour market reform and more open borders, folkpartiet wants lower taxes on high incomes and more free trade, and the christian democrats attacks the taxes on petrol and properties.

The logic in 1991-94 was that the moderates in government wanted to do more, whereas the others held them back. This time, they agree on more changes from the start, and the three smaller parties will push for more changes. This - and the fact that they don´t inheret an economic crisis - means that there is a chance that they will reform more than in 1991-94.

The four alliance parties actually won at the peak of the business cycle with a fairly ideological stand for jobs vs welfare benefits. This gives them a strong mandate to reduce benefits and reduce taxes, especially on low incomes. And this gives room to move on with more tax cuts when people move from the welfare rolls to jobs. The taxes on property and estates will be the first to go.

The government will privatise most companies owned by the government, deregulate the product markets, open Sweden for workers from other countries, dismantle the political control of the universities, give parents freedom of choice in child care, open welfare services completely for private alternatives, create more voucher systems and locally they will privatise hospitals. And they will be on the side of deregulation in the EU.

(4)