Just what is the problem that Scots in particular have with the private sector delivering public services?
Do Tesco and Aldi do a bad job of providing us with groceries? The evidence is that they and their competitors do an excellent job of ensuring the public have a good selection of goods at fair prices at a choice of outlets.
For some reason this service, covering something as basic as food, is no problem at all for the private sector to deliver.
Yet if there is any suggestion of the private sector being involved in providing things like universal healthcare or education there is mass hysteria and the First Minister has to make a reassuring statement in Parliament that those nasty private sector people will be kept out.
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This even extends, rather daftly, to the provision of ferry services. Just how much evidence do we need that the private sector can deliver ferry services better than the public sector. CalMac has the wrong sort of ferries, travelling in some cases on the wrong routes, too slowly, too unreliably, too infrequently at far too much cost. Yes, you meet some wonderful staff on a CalMac vessel but that isn't good enough. The service is poor and costs too much.
Unusually, ferries provide a laboratory quality example of a private sector operator providing a superior and more cost-effective service compared with the state-owned operator.
CalMac used to have a monopoly on the Gourock to Dunoon route. Then along came the privately owned Western Ferries; no catering, smaller vessels, fewer crew, more frequent sailings for longer hours each day.
The public voted with their feet. Western Ferries, despite attempts at unfair competition by CalMac, flourished. So much so that CalMac gave up the route. Western Ferries continues to provide an excellent service today. Given the chance they and others like them could do the same on other routes but the Scottish Government won't entertain it. This is madness, the poor service from CalMac is not what people on our islands need and its crazy cost is not fair to taxpayers.
Education. In England they allow academy schools run on private sector lines with their own board of Governors but within an effective regulatory framework to provide education. It works. England used to be behind Scotland on things like reading attainment and maths but now it is the other way around, Scotland trails. Have we looked south to see what we could learn? We have not.
The demand for healthcare, and add to that adult social care, is almost limitless. The population who need help grows, the population who can give that help and pay for it diminishes, the overall cake is not growing so if we spend more on health and social care we have less to spend on other things. The economy already groans under the weight of taxation and debt.
We need bravery, leadership and a willingness to take radical action if we are going to be able to rescue our health and social care services.
In England there is some evidence the Government understands just shovelling in more and more money to the NHS is simply not sustainable. Reform is absolutely necessary. In Scotland we celebrate that we pay our healthcare workers more than in England but there is no debate about radical reform, we still believe more money and state control of everything is the solution when it clearly is not.
Democratic control of the regulatory framework, the setting of standards and priorities is absolutely vital but why is it that we just cannot stomach the private sector delivering healthcare?
The private sector will expect to make a profit but what if in return they bring additional financial resources which revolutionise the technical capability of our hospitals; if they can treat, to a high standard, 5 people instead of 3 people for the same money as now, what exactly is the problem with that?
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The state is not good at actually delivering things well and efficiently. We all make increasing demands of public services. Our public debt is too high and still rising. If we don’t do something new the wheels will soon come off.
Yes, the Government should work hard boosting growth but that is the relatively easy bit. The harder, but even more vital, part of their work should be on increasing efficiency so that public money goes further. Public servants who go on strike because they are asked to come into the office for at least two days a week should be replaced as not fit for the job. Unions who won’t talk about ending unsustainable, gold-plated public-sector pension scheme should be faced down.
The relentless rise in the number of civil servants must not just be stopped but reversed. The list is endless, hard, grinding, relentless focus on delivering more with less. This is what the private sector does every day.
Sticking our heads in the sand and confusing the state doing more with actual progress is the road to ruin. In Scotland we are well down that road.
Guy Stenhouse is a notable figure in the Scottish financial sector. He has held various positions, including being the Managing Director of Noble Grossart, an independent merchant bank based in Edinburgh, until 2017
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