Perhaps that is not surprising. It is, after all, a new government with a new dynamic. But over the past few weeks there has been a consistency of message and I'm finally starting to feel that I have some understanding of what's going on.
It's clear that the government believes in doing less: fewer glossy leaflets, less guidance, no government offices, fewer civil servants, and slashed marketing budgets. Sometimes this is counter-productive — apprenticeships, for example, are important but they are no longer being marketed. And "doing less" is not just a matter of reducing spending, it is a matter of principle. The government is explicitly not trying to engineer a slick, fully-machined system, but a permissive system, which recognises that different places and different problems have different solutions, and that these are best worked out locally. One size does not fit all.
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