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Friday, 28 February 2025

The bus will go over the cliff



Ian Gribbin has a useful TCW reminder of the gargantuan scale of UK government waste and the standard excuse after each costly debacle -  ‘Lessons have been learned’. 

Quite short and well worth reading because of the underlying point - 'Get the wrong people and lessons will never be learned. The bus will go over the cliff.’


Billions upon billions blown by Britain’s incompetent rulers

IN WHAT seems like another life and another world, I spent a year working outside the office of legendary hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin. One weekend he offered to take a few of us golfing at a prestigious course in Illinois. On the limo journey, he gave each of us a copy of Jim Collins’s newly published Good to Great book on business.

‘It’s all about the people, Ian. Get the right folks on board the bus and the bus will drive itself. Get the wrong people and lessons will never be learned. The bus will go over the cliff.’

I never finished the book: it became a bit of a dry read, and like many business books was rather evangelising. Still, the point Ken made stuck with me.

A quarter of a century on, and a year after I returned to the UK, Ken’s words returned. Rishi Sunak had taken over, and the northern part of HS2 was being cancelled. During the announcement I heard a Treasury official mumble a fraudulent apology: ‘Lessons have been learned’.

2 comments:

dearieme said...

Do you remember the Bob Monkhouse joke?

"I'd like to die like my old dad, peacefully in his sleep, not screaming like his passengers."

A K Haart said...

dearieme - yes I do remember it, Starmer's passengers are becoming agitated.