ArtOfGov

A planned economy built better trains

A great problem with the efficiencies agenda is trying to establish the most effective process or method of achieving something within a free market environment. Or rather a controlled market, as there is no such thing as a free market.

The most effective way to organise ICT in the NHS would probably be to create an NHS ICT department stuffed with clever graduates from computer science courses. A single NHS network. One NHS system. But no, the ‘free market’ insists there has to be competition. But the competition is in fact so distorted that what emerges is weird monopolies. An example is in Private Eye a couple of weeks ago where there is a report of how it costs the NHS £16,000 - yes I will spell it out SIXTEEN THOUSAND POUNDS to buy a computer. Supermarkets are selling them for about four hundred quid.

There continues to be this terrible confusion which asserts that the only planned economies were the Soviet Bloc - these failed, therefore planning fails. Wrong.

An example of a very successfully planned economy was Britain during the second world war. So effective was this that the intake of calories for large amounts of the population increased - despite the fact that there was both rationing, and a black market.

And what about this wonderful example, illustrated by a photo from today’s visit to the National Railway Museum in York. This train was re-designed to use less steel - but was more powerful than previous versions. So much steel was saved making forty of these engines that another nine could be built.