From Wednesday’s FT:

“A report yesterday by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee showed government is spending some £2bn a year on external consultants- without knowing whether the benefits justify the cost”.

Sue Cameron, the author of this article points out that civil servants should be impartial and the professional ones will see their role to act in the public interest. This means telling Ministers bad news if necessary (think ‘Yes, Minister’).

Not so the big consultancies employed on Whitehall projects. As one person put it:

“Civil servants used to give ministers bad news but management consultants never do - not unless they are feeling suicidal or no longer need to work”.

I can’t believe I’m the only person who feels they live in one side of a parallel universe. In one part of this universe, cuts are made to public services, hospitals are threatened with bankruptcy, people live in poverty and the transport infrastructure regularly breaks down.

In the other side of this universe there seems to be an endless pile of blank cheques for management consultants who deliver very nebulous benefits, if any at all.

The wall between these two sides appears to be the government. It is clawing money out of the public sector and giving it in large, unmeasured bucketfuls to a very small number of already extremely rich companies who appear to deliver…not much.

A long time ago, someone said something about the unacceptable face of capitalism.