SNP and Tory chiefs prepare for power

Avatar · SNP and Tory chiefs prepare for power

I wasn't sure if I should put this here or in the New election 2007 section.

"The initial pre-election round of meetings between senior civil servants and aspiring opposition parties saw the SNP and Tory leaders make a foray into the corridors of power yesterday.
Alex Salmond presented the permanent secretary in Scotland with a plan for major cuts in bureaucracy should the SNP win power, saying: "We could do with less ministers and therefore less ministerial departments, probably less executive agencies, certainly less special advisers, because I think one of the key attributes of joined-up government is to have less bits to join up."
Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: "It is clear that no single party will be in overall control after next year's elections.
"I wanted confirmation that the civil service was preparing itself to advise on minority government. I received very welcome reassurance that already the civil service has been looking at other models."
Labour and LibDems responded by pouring scorn on SNP and Tory pretensions to government."

I love the way the Writer didn't even bother adding any quotes from Labour or the Lib Dems and just dismissed it as "pouring scorn". A sure sign of the times when even the journalists get bored of writing the same crap over and over again.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/73837.html

Aventinian

I wonder how that would work - the SNP have no experience of government (the Tories are in the same boat in the Scottish Parliament) and yet they hope to govern effectively with less advisers and civil servants?

It just seems to me that this is the promise made by every government, and every time it is attempted the Sir Humphreys of State manage to point out how it is against the new government's best interests.

SLG

I don't get the first point. Just because they have no experience doesn't mean that they can't cut the size of government - so long as they don't cut it where it is effective. Are you saying that there is no areas of wastage that could be cut without affecting the running of the state? And not just that, by cutting some advisors etc, it might make the running of government easier and more transparent. Sometimes less is more.

Well just because every other government has failed to do this doesn't mean that an SNP one would. They need to be given the chance. Or do you take the line that we are on a route of ever expanding government and that no government of any party will alter this path?