Comments on: Lord Birt http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2005/03/18/1546 Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'. Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:32:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Julian Todd http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2005/03/18/1546#comment-2895 Julian Todd Wed, 23 Mar 2005 13:49:00 +0000 http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2005/03/18/1546#comment-2895 Lord Birt is there to think of lots of stupid ideas that Blair isn't clever enough to come up with himself. New stupid ideas are necessary because the political system naturally rules out the adoption of every sensible idea that it has heard about. The system, however, has no defence against stupid ideas that it hasn't heard about yet, which is where out-of-the-box brains like Lord Birt's are in demand. So, in transport, there's his idea of building all motorways in duplicate, one tolled and one old and free and which bears the costs of all the trucks. This is being implemented on the M6 and is stupid. The sensible idea would be to not have so much f***ing traffic in the first place: double that in 1990, and we're not noticeably better off. And we've got mobile phones now. Then there's the marketization of the telephone directory enquiries. It might not be Birt's idea in particular, but it's exactly the sort of dumb stupid incredible idea it's his job to think of. The House of Commons has been unable to interview this fellow for years, which has annoyed them bitterly. Is he not proud of his work or something? http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmtlgr/655/65503.htm Lord Birt is there to think of lots of stupid ideas that Blair isn’t clever enough to come up with himself. New stupid ideas are necessary because the political system naturally rules out the adoption of every sensible idea that it has heard about.

The system, however, has no defence against stupid ideas that it hasn’t heard about yet, which is where out-of-the-box brains like Lord Birt’s are in demand.

So, in transport, there’s his idea of building all motorways in duplicate, one tolled and one old and free and which bears the costs of all the trucks. This is being implemented on the M6 and is stupid.

The sensible idea would be to not have so much f***ing traffic in the first place: double that in 1990, and we’re not noticeably better off. And we’ve got mobile phones now.

Then there’s the marketization of the telephone directory enquiries. It might not be Birt’s idea in particular, but it’s exactly the sort of dumb stupid incredible idea it’s his job to think of.

The House of Commons has been unable to interview this fellow for years, which has annoyed them bitterly. Is he not proud of his work or something?

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmtlgr/655/65503.htm

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