Originally Posted by
blind pew
I knew an extremely competent glider pilot who would do an aerobatic sequence returning to the airfield from a cross country flight. After a couple of sessions he confessed he was in the red arrows and born and bred north of the border. I asked why he had relocated to the south..I make and sell racing sails and whilst those in the republic are happy to use his services the north is filled with civil servants who have nothing better to do than find the cheapest price.
A council has recently taken over a park that we use for paragliding..they have insisted that we sign an annual agreement to use it and give a weeks notice before we fly. Our take off criteria is wind direction of 290 to 250 degrees and 8 to 12 knots…they couldn’t even forecast the fastnet storm 24 hours in advance!
I fail to understand why anyone can object to society having the lowest cost, taxpayer funded, administration. It seems pretty obvious to me that we should strive to have a fair and equable society where taxation is as low as can be practically achieved, commensurate with a high standard of public services, as ultimately it is everyone that pays taxes that fund all public services. The trick is getting that balance right, so that we place the least burden on taxpayers in order to get the required level of public services. Some states get this wrong and spend too little on public services, some states get this wrong by paying too much for poor public services. Finding the sweet spot, where public services meet the needs of the majority, without placing an undue burden on all taxpayers, should be the goal of all government.
One problem in NI is that they have not had a proper and effective government for years, too much time has been spent arguing about power sharing and too little time has been spent in managing government funded services. As a consequence there have been several major errors of judgement and poorly thought through legislation. Who can forget, for example, the insane RHI scandal, where farmers were paid a profit by government to heat empty barns under the way the civil servants of the NI government chose to frame their version of the legislation? :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewa...entive_scandal
No one here is going to suggest that this was a well thought through policy, and one that justifies the way government and the civil service works in NI, are they?
There are other examples too, including those around other incentives associated with things like farming, that were almost as badly thought through and implemented.