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This is a curious comment in multiple respects. First, Britain has never been a particularly bureaucratic country in comparison to its European neighbors or eve

by foldr 3y ago

This is a curious comment in multiple respects. First, Britain has never been a particularly bureaucratic country in comparison to its European neighbors or even the USA. For example, it is very easy to start a small business, file taxes, etc. etc. Second, as the sibling points out, the country is in a pretty bad situation economically at the moment. Many people would happily wind the clock back 10-15 years in that respect.

Retric 3y ago
It’s not always about business. Read up on the history of Greater London Council/Greater London Authority, its one attempt deal with the 32 boroughs and City of London Corporation. Compare it with say NYC, or similarly large city’s around the world and it’s clear London/UK could benefit from streamlining things.
- foldr 3y ago
  What does that have to do with the actions of the current government over the past decade? You were talking about things that have allegedly already improved, not possible future improvements. By the way, I live in London and am reasonably familiar with its history. Asking people to 'read up' on things that haven't previously been a topic of the discussion is a bit presumptuous. I might know more about it than you!
  - Retric 3y ago
    I was supporting my argument for hundreds of years of bureaucracy built up. Reducing support for local councils has been deeply unpopular, but pointing out 32 + 1 local councils for London is overly bureaucratic and long agreed to be inefficient doesn’t connect to that in any way? The actual solution is to get rid of most of them, but a stopgap is to reduce their funding and thus waste.
    - foldr 3y ago
      >I was supporting my argument for hundreds of years of bureaucracy built up. I don't really understand what this means. Any country that's existed for hundreds of years has bureaucracy that's built up over hundreds of years. Britain isn't an unusually bureaucratic country – quite the opposite in many respects. >Reducing support for local councils has been deeply unpopular And yet you seem to think that it's had various unspecified benefits. If so, why is it so unpopular with the general public? And what are these benefits? It's easy to cut 'waste' by cutting funding. Cut funding to zero and you'll have zero waste! Magic!
      - Retric 3y ago
        > Any country that's existed for hundreds of years has bureaucracy that's built up over hundreds of years. Britain isn't an unusually bureaucratic country – quite the opposite in many respects. Most countries disrupt the existing bureaucracy over time, the UK is somewhat unique in how old many of it’s structures are. Tokyo and Paris are equally old cities, but their structure didn’t ossify hundreds of years ago they fundamentally changed over time. Also, there is nothing unspecified about cutting waste being beneficial. The difficult bit about cutting spending in a democracy is the unpopular nature of doing so. So, again you personally don’t like what’s going on, and at the exact same time it’s good for the long term health of the UK. Not because their doing a particularly good job, but because their doing something necessary.
        foldr 3y ago
        >There’s nothing unspecified about cutting waste being beneficial. You haven't specified who's benefitted and how. Nor have you shown that 'waste' spending has indeed gone down, either in absolute terms or as a fraction of total spending. >So, again you personally don’t like what’s going on, and at the exact same time it’s a very good thing for the long term health of the UK. How long is 'long' here? The country was in a better economic state when the Conservatives came to power in 2010. How long will we have to wait to see these long term benefits?
        Retric 3y ago

by foldr 3y ago

Retric 3y ago

It’s not always about business. Read up on the history of Greater London Council/Greater London Authority, its one attempt deal with the 32 boroughs and City of London Corporation. Compare it with say NYC, or similarly large city’s around the world and it’s clear London/UK could benefit from streamlining things.

foldr 3y ago
What does that have to do with the actions of the current government over the past decade? You were talking about things that have allegedly already improved, not possible future improvements. By the way, I live in London and am reasonably familiar with its history. Asking people to 'read up' on things that haven't previously been a topic of the discussion is a bit presumptuous. I might know more about it than you!
- Retric 3y ago
  I was supporting my argument for hundreds of years of bureaucracy built up. Reducing support for local councils has been deeply unpopular, but pointing out 32 + 1 local councils for London is overly bureaucratic and long agreed to be inefficient doesn’t connect to that in any way? The actual solution is to get rid of most of them, but a stopgap is to reduce their funding and thus waste.
  - foldr 3y ago
    >I was supporting my argument for hundreds of years of bureaucracy built up. I don't really understand what this means. Any country that's existed for hundreds of years has bureaucracy that's built up over hundreds of years. Britain isn't an unusually bureaucratic country – quite the opposite in many respects. >Reducing support for local councils has been deeply unpopular And yet you seem to think that it's had various unspecified benefits. If so, why is it so unpopular with the general public? And what are these benefits? It's easy to cut 'waste' by cutting funding. Cut funding to zero and you'll have zero waste! Magic!
    - Retric 3y ago
      > Any country that's existed for hundreds of years has bureaucracy that's built up over hundreds of years. Britain isn't an unusually bureaucratic country – quite the opposite in many respects. Most countries disrupt the existing bureaucracy over time, the UK is somewhat unique in how old many of it’s structures are. Tokyo and Paris are equally old cities, but their structure didn’t ossify hundreds of years ago they fundamentally changed over time. Also, there is nothing unspecified about cutting waste being beneficial. The difficult bit about cutting spending in a democracy is the unpopular nature of doing so. So, again you personally don’t like what’s going on, and at the exact same time it’s good for the long term health of the UK. Not because their doing a particularly good job, but because their doing something necessary.
      - foldr 3y ago
        >There’s nothing unspecified about cutting waste being beneficial. You haven't specified who's benefitted and how. Nor have you shown that 'waste' spending has indeed gone down, either in absolute terms or as a fraction of total spending. >So, again you personally don’t like what’s going on, and at the exact same time it’s a very good thing for the long term health of the UK. How long is 'long' here? The country was in a better economic state when the Conservatives came to power in 2010. How long will we have to wait to see these long term benefits?
        Retric 3y ago