Why our ministers should try to do less work

Jun 19 2003 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

Alan Milburn is to be congratulated for quitting the Cabinet to spend more time with his family.

This explanation for his departure is entirely plausible and we can ignore the speculation as to an ulterior motive. What we should also ignore are those who say: "Doesn't this demonstrate that we put too great a pressure on our political leaders, doesn't it just go to show that we ask too much of them?" Er…no it doesn't.

I don't deny that ministers work hard and extremely long hours. One has only to see how Tony Blair has aged since taking office. A typical minister's day can begin at 7am with a radio interview, continue through the evening with a dinner for some foreign dignitary or other, and end, after two or three hours with the red boxes, at 1am. But I still don't have a great deal of sympathy. They bring it on themselves.

Solutions have been proposed, such as breaking down barriers between departments to avoid ministers duplicating each others' work, or freeing ministers from the need to actually be in the Commons to vote. But this is only tinkering around the edges. No such scheme will make any real difference because none of them address the root of the problem, which is the politician's compulsion to control, legislate and interfere, to extend the tentacles of government in general and his or her own department in particular into every sphere of life.

The inevitable result is that ministers are run ragged trying to do a job whose scope they are ever seeking to expand. Since 1976 there has been no reduction in the flow of regulation and red tape. On the contrary the demands of the EU have made the situation much worse, as any small business will testify. The answer is obvious. If ministers want to work less hard, they should attempt to do less.

Their heavy workload is bad for the economy, as so much of their regulatory activity ends up putting further burdens on business. It is bad for the country because ministers try to do so much they do nothing well. It is bad for ministers, physically and mentally.

And, as Alan Milburn has shown - it is bad for their families.