Let’s all pull together — not pull our community apart in a time of crisis

The line is from Casablanca, of course, and that movie was about a time when the world was even crazier than it is now.

But it was the Second World War. I wonder has there ever been a time of peace when the world — at least our little bit of the world — was crazier than it is right now? But that phrase about stuff not amounting to a hill of beans was the thing that kept going through my head all week. Especially when I read the detail of the Government’s big announcement about public service reform. Sixty-six pages of content about the ending of decentralisation projects, the elimination of so-called “quangos” and the restructuring of the civil and public services to do more with less. And it was really hard to find a hill of beans at the end of it.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a strategy, and it’s all good stuff (well, most of it was good stuff — if I had the time I’d argue the toss about some of the quango decisions). It will deliver the goods if it’s implemented, and there’s a pretty detailed implementation plan. By the time it’s done we should have a greatly streamlined, and hopefully more citizen-focused, public service. It’s a decent strategic plan, worth keeping an eye on as it’s happening.