In the latest development to the sorry tale of Labour’s ‘missions,’ the ‘Mission Boards’ that are supposed to deliver on them don’t even have terms of reference yet. Meaning no official structure or goal…
Co-conspirators may remember that the potemkin boards were meant to be chaired by Starmer and were initially set up as Cabinet committees with some weight. They were devolved in November last year and Darren Jones was chosen to chair three umbrella committees instead. Think that meant the end of the pointless mission boards? Au contraire…
Ed Miliband’s “Mission Board: Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower” does not have a formal designation. The department says: “Terms of Reference for the Board are currently under review.” They’re thinking about it…
It also doesn’t have a list of members other than Miliband: “The board does not have a fixed list of internal or external members, and undertakes engagement with other government departments, external organisations and industry experts depending on the issues identified for discussion.“ Guido can report that government officials are working on coining a German word for that very specific feeling of dread when Ed Miliband sends you a meeting invitation…
Speaking at an IPPR think tank event in London, the Health Secretary compared striking junior doctors to mutinous sailors.
“I feel like we’ve turned the ship, the boat’s going in the right direction, except some of the crew are trying to row in one direction while the rest of us are going in the other. You can’t make progress that way. We are seeing an improving NHS, and we’ve seen improvement despite resident doctors’ strikes, but the fact is, performance would have been better and there would have been more money to invest in staff and services if the BMA hadn’t been undertaking the strike action.”