14Esther McVey

The Northern Powerhouse

DISCIPLINE and dependability, qualities that might sound dull but, which along with a stiff upper lip, helped make this country great. However, for now at least, they seem to have disappeared. This is a result of lockdown and it has seeped into the pores of our most trusted organisations with devastating consequences.

Need a timely reply? Forget it. Whether you need a new passport, a driver’s licence or planning permission, the delays are so bad that families are missing holidays, drivers are prevented from working and building sites lay idle. Worse still, no one seems to care or have an answer.

Yesterday I waited on the phone for over an hour and had remained number five in the queue for the duration – holding on in the hope of discovering what had happened to a constituent’s passport that hadn’t arrived after 10 months.

Even train travel has lost the rigour of a schedule and is no longer dependable. While waiting on the platform, a train can be randomly cancelled because staff haven’t arrived for work.

Airports are the worst. It doesn’t matter which way you turn there are delays, cancellations, backlogs and excuses.

So how do we get back to a preCovid smooth-running country? How do we inject discipline and routine back into the nation? I agree with Jacob Rees-Mogg – getting people back into the workplace on a regular basis is a good place to start.

But we also need to create a “working at home” discipline and structure as theWFH phenomenon isn’t going away. In this cost-of -living crisis, people will want to try to save money when and where they can, and if saving on travel is one such way, then so be it.

This new system of oversight can’t be about spying on staff, rather it’s about judging people on output rather than input, and getting things done. Never again can we have reports of DVLA staff watching Netflix, as the public wait for their driving licences, with work a mere distraction from viewing the latest box set. This Covid couldn’t-care-less attitude needs to be consigned to the history books.

We need discipline back in the country if we want to put the great back into Great Britain.

Operation Mincemeat, is a must see war film, based on a real event that saved thousands of soldiers’ lives. I raced to see it after talking to the Queen when I was made a Privy Councillor. Her Majesty questioned whether such a mission could be possible nowadays as people aren’t as good at keeping secrets and most things end up online. How right she is!