A great day's racing... for how much longer?

Can anyone point to anything they have read, seen or heard that emanates from anyone in Government in the last two weeks that has turned out to be true? For example, Rachel from Accounts confirmed that the abolishment of NHS England was on track to “unlock savings of £1bn pa by the end of the Parliament,” which is “equivalent to the cost of over 115,000 extra hip and knee operations.” (November 26, 2025 Autumn Budget Speech). In reality, of course, NHS England still hasn’t opened a voluntary redundancy scheme, and staffing costs have actually increased since it was ‘axed’. Plus, one should mention that Trade Union Facility Time - a scheme in which trade union representatives in the quango get paid to take time off to carry out their union duties - has doubled in the last year. In the year 2023-24, 71 FTE NHE staff were given time off to do union work, costing the taxpayer £89,974. In 2024-25, that number jumped to 88, costing the taxpayer £193,550.

The Home Office has still not formed its new “asylum taskforce”, three months after the announcement.

Across the road, the Defence Ministry’s “Defence Reform Programme”, announced in July 2024 and which nine months ago John Healey described as “deepest defence reforms for 50 years”, was supposed to have been initiated by now. It included massive internal restructuring and the creation of a new “Military Strategic Headquarters”. A written answer on budget day on this matter said: “The Department is currently working to determine the estimated cost of implementing Defence Reform across Defence. At present, a total cost figure is not yet available.” By the by, for those of you keen on seeing our country defended from the maddening crowds, Healey’s new ‘Defence Office for Small Business Growth’ doesn’t even have an actual office and it launches to do £2½bn of SME business development in January, or six weeks as us sticklers for facts like to think of it.